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BOOK    398.22.H13  IB   c.  1 
HALE    #    BOYS    HEROES 


3  T153  0012M32fl  fl 


M 


ROBINSON    CRUSOE. 


BOYS'  HEROES 


BY 

EDWARD    EVERETT    HALE 


ILLUSTRA  TIONS 


BOSTON 
D    LOTHROP   COMPANY 

WASHINGTON    STREET    OPPOSITE  BROMFIELD 


— — y-\ — , — eg — _4— >^_ 


Copyright  by 

D.  LOTHROP  h.  COMPANY, 
1886. 


CONTENTS. 


I. 

Hector           .... 

Page. 

7 

II. 

HORATIUS    COCLES 

26 

III. 

Alexander  the  Great 

40 

IV. 

Hannibal       .... 

51 

V. 

King  Arthur 

69 

VI. 

Richard  the  Lion  Hearted 

82 

VII. 

Bayard            .... 

95 

VIII. 

Robinson  Crusoe 

III 

IX. 

Israel  Putnam      .         .         .         . 

127 

X. 

General  Lafayette 

137 

XI. 

Napoleon  the  First    . 

T5^ 

XII. 

Ralph  Allestree 

164 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Page. 

kobinson  Crusoe 

Frontispiece 

Hector  and  Andromache. —  From  the  Bas- 

relief  by  Thorwaldsen    . 

• 

15 

"Where  stood  the  Dauntless  Three 

>) 

28 

"Alone  Stood  Brave  Horatius  " 

• 

31 

Alexander  the  Great 

• 

45 

King  Arthur's  Round  Table 

• 

70 

The  Sword  Excalibar 

• 

.         76 

Bayard's  Armor 

•         < 

99 

The  Young  Bayard     . 

• 

103 

Bartholdi's  Statue  of  Lafayette 

•         < 

141 

BOYS'    HEROES. 


I. 


HECTOR. 

BOYS  are  jealously  exclusive  in  the  choice  of 
their  heroes,  and  have  not  many. 
I  asked  some  of  my  younger  friends  why  Hector 
was  a  boy's  hero,  to  receive  these  replies : 

"  Oh,  because  Achilles  was  such  a  hog."  An- 
other boy  said, 

"  Oh,  you  like  the  Trojans,  you  know,  and  you 
are  sorry  the  Greeks  beat  them." 

I  tried  to  find  out  whether  Hector's  gentlemanly 
traits,  of  which  he  has  more  than  any  hero  of  the 
Iliad,  had  anything  to  do  with  the  preference  of 
Hector  to  Achilles.  Do  boys  like  Hector  the 
more  because  he  was  kind  to  Helen  —  because  he 

7 


8  boys'  heroes. 

was  fond  of  his  wife  and  his  baby  ?  To  these  ques- 
tions I  have  found  no  satisfactory  answers,  and  I 
throw  them  out  for  discussion  among  my  young 
friends. 

Hector  had  the  advantages  and  the  disadvan- 
tages of  an  oldest  son.  He  was  the  oldest  son  of 
Priam  and  Hecuba.  All  along,  apparently,  he  was 
befriended  by  Apollo.  I  suppose  that  is  a  short 
way  of  saying  that  he  was  handsome  and  graceful, 
learned  his  lessons  quickly,  sung  well  and  danced 
well,  and  got  along  with  the  other  boys  without 
frequent  rows.  I  suppose  it  also  means  that  he 
had  good  health,  which  is  the  best  thing  a  boy  can 
have  —  that  he  liked  to  live  in  the  open  air,  and 
that  is  the  best  taste  a  boy  can  have.  One  account 
says  squarely  that  he  was  Apollo's  son.  But  that 
is  hardly  any  affair  of  ours.  For  our  business  in 
these  little  papers   is  chiefly  with  history. 

According  to  Homer,  Priam  had  fifty  sons,  of 
whom  Hecuba  was  mother  of  nineteen.  Several 
of  these  sons  appear  in  the  story,  and  Alexander  or 
Paris  played  the  central  part  in  the  beginning  of  it. 
But  I  remember  nothing  which  is  said  of  their  edu- 


HECTOR.  9 

cation,  excepting  Hector's  own  statement  that  he 
was 

—bred  to  martial  pains. 

Achilles  was  specially  put  under  Chiron's  care,  as 
if  Chiron  were  a  sort  of  tutor. 

Achilles  was  also  "  tutored  "  by  Phoenix,  to  use 
a  very  ba'd  word,  which  is,  however,  a  conven- 
ient one.  But  of  Hector's  tutors  I  remember 
nothing  —  and  schools,  I  think,  were  not  then 
invented.  Somebody  taught  him  to  tell  the  truth 
and  to  fight  the  enemies  of  his  country.  That  is 
the  heart  of  all  education,  as  you  will  learn  when 
you  come  to  read  Amyas  Leigh.  I  think  he  knew 
how  to  read,  but  of  this  I  am  not  certain.  I  doubt 
if  he  could  spell.  But  he  could  run  well  —  only 
too  well.  He  could  swim,  I  think.  He  could  har- 
ness and  drive  horses.  He  could  play  with  a  baby. 
He  could  be  good  to  his  wife.  Here  are  all  the  es- 
sentials gained  in  a  good  education.  As  to  the 
question  which  some  readers  will  think  most  im- 
portant —  whether  he  played  ball  —  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  he  did.    They  all  played  ball,  and  played 


10  BOYS     HEROES. 

it  very  well.  You  will  see  that  Hector,  even  in  the 
royal  family,  could  have  selected  a  good  nine  from 
his  own  brothers,  and  another  nine  to  play  against, 
and  an  umpire.  And  still  there  could  have  been  a 
good  company  of  brothers  and  sisters  to  look  on. 

When  the  Greeks  landed,  it  was  known  by  an 
oracle  that  he  who  landed  first  would  be  killed. 
Laodamia  wrote  to  her  husband  Protesilaus, 

Be  thine  the  thousandth  of  a  thousand  ships. 

But  Protesilaus  either  did  not  receive  the  letter  or 
disregarded  it.  He  was  the  first  Greek  to  spring 
ashore,  and  Hector  was  ready  and  killed  him. 
So  Hector  struck  the  first  blow. 

You  will  find  this  story  in  "  Lucian's  Dialogues 
of  the  Dead,"  an  amusing  book,  in  which  are  a 
good  many  of  the  later  traditions  which  had  grown 
up  about  the  older  Greek  mythology.  It  is  not  in 
the  Iliad.  In  the  Iliad,  Hector  appears  first  where 
he  reproaches  Paris,  his  brother,  for  running  away 
from  Menelaus.  Remember  that  it  is  the  wife  of 
Menelaus  whom  Paris  has  stolen ;  and  that  thus 
the  whole  war  began : 


HECTOR.  II 

As  godlike  Hector  sees  the  prince  retreat 

He  thus  upbraids  him  with  a  generous  heat; 

"Unhappy  Paris!  but  to  women  brave! 

So  fairly  form'd,  and  only  to  deceive ! 

Oh,  hadst  thou  died  when  first  thou  saw'st  the  light, 

Or  died  at  least  before  thy  nuptial  rite  ! 

A  better  fate  than  vainly  thus  to  boast, 

And  fly,  the  scandal  of  thy  Trojan  host. 

Gods !  how  the  scornful  Greeks  exult  to  see 

Their  fears  of  danger  undeceived  in  thee  !  "^ 

Hector  then  challenged  Menelaus  himself.  Here 
is  the  result : 

Stung  to  the  heart  the  generous  Hector  hears. 
But  just  reproof  with  decent  silence  bears. 
From  his  proud  car  the  prince  impetuous  springs, 
On  earth  he  leaps ;  his  brazen  armour  rings. 
Two  shining  spears  are  brandish'd  in  his  hands  ; 
Thus  arm'd,  he  animates  his  drooping  bands, 
Revives  their  ardor,  turns  their  steps  from  flight 
And  wakes  anew  the  dying  flames  of  fight. 
They  turn,  they  stand ;  the  Greeks  their  fury  dare, 
Condense  their  powers  and  wait  the  growing  war. 

Where  Hector  march'd,  the  god  of  battles  shined. 
Now  storm 'd  before  him,  and  now  raged  behind. 


12  ROVS'    HEROES. 

Amazed  no  less  the  great  Tydides  stands : 
He  stay'd,  anri  funiing  thus  address'd  his  bands: 
"  No  wonder,  Cireeks  :  that  all  to  Hector  yield; 
Secure  of  favouring  gods,  he  takes  the  field; 
His  strokes  they  second,  and  avert  our  spears; 
Behold  where  Mars  in  mortal  arms  appears ! 
Retire  then,  warriors,  but  sedate  and  slow; 
Retire,  but  with  your  faces  to  the  foe. 
Trust  not  too  much  your  unavailing  might  ; 
'Tis  not  with  Troy,  but  with  the  gods  ye  fight." 

There  follows  a  general  battle.  Even  Ares,  the 
god  of  war,  is  wounded,  as  he  fights  on  the  Trojan 
side.  Hector  goes  back  to  the  city  to  ask  his  mother 
to  pray  to  their  fast  friend,  Athene,  for  relief.  It 
is  then  he  has  the  interview  with  his  wife  Andro- 
mache, when  the  little  boy  is  afraid  of  the  helmet. 

Thus  having  spoke,  th'  illustrious  son  of  Troy 
Stretched  his  fond  arms  to  clasp  the  lovely  boy. 
The  babe  clung  crying  to  his  nurse's  breast, 
Scared  at  the  dazzling  helm  and  nodding  crest. 
With  secret  pleasure  each  fond  parent  smiled 
And  Hector  hastened  to  relieve  his  child  — 
The  glittering  terrors  from  his  brow  unbound, 
And  placed  the  beaming  helmet  on  the  ground ; 


HECTOR.  13 

Then  kissed  the  child,  and,  lifting  high  in  air, 
Thus  to  the  gods  preferred  a  father's  prayer : 
"  O,  Thou !  whose  glory  fills  the  ethereal  throne, 
And  all  ye  deathless  powers,  protect  my  son. 
Grant  him  like  me  to  purchase  just  renown, 
To  guard  the  Trojans,  to  defend  the  crown ; 
Against  his  country's  foes  the  war  to  wage 
And  rise  the  Hector  of  a  future  age. 
So,  when  triumphant  from  successful  toils, 
Of  heroes  slain  he  bears  the  reeking  spoils. 
Whole  hosts  may  hail  him  with  deserved  acclaim 
And  say,  this  chief  transcends  his  father's  fame 
While  pleased,  amidst  the  general  shouts  of  Troy, 
His  mother's  conscious  heart  o'erflowswith  joy." 

In  the  battle  which  follows  Hector  is  wounded,  but 
not  so  severely  wounded  but  that  he  soon  appears 
again  and  again,  and  when  he  appears,  the  Greeks 
are  apt  to  be  worsted.  Then  Teucer  attacks  him, 
after  having  killed  eight  Trojans  in  succession  by 
successful  arrow-shots. 

"  He  spoke,  and  sent  another  arrow  from  the 
string,  aimed  at  Hector,  whom  he  hoped  to  strike. 
But  it  missed  him,  and  struck  in  the  heart  Gor- 
g}1:hion,  a  brave  son  of  Priam,  whose  mother  was 


14  BOVS     HEROES. 

Castianira,  beautiful  as  a  goddess,  who  had  been 
brought  as  a  slave  from  Aesyma.  And  as  a  poppy 
in  a  garden,  heavy  with  its  fruit,  and  supple  with 
the  moisture  of  spring,  bends  its  head  upon  one 
side,  so  bent  his  heavy  head  upon  one  side.  And 
Teucer  sent  another  arrow  from  the  string,  aimed 
at  Hector  whom  he  hoped  to  strike.  But  even 
then  it  missed  him,  for  Apollo  warded  it  off,  and  it 
struck  Archeptolemus,  the  brave  charioteer  of  Hec- 
tor, as  he  was  rushing  into  the  fight — it  struck  him 
in  the  heart.  He  fell  from  the  chariot,  and  his 
horses  sprung  backward  and  all  his  spirit  and  his 
strength  were  gone.  And  Hector  mourned  for  his 
charioteer  with  bitter  grief." 

I  have  translated  this,  almost  literally,  in  the 
hope  that  some  boy  or  girl  may  send  to  me  a  ver- 
sion in  poetry,  half  as  good  as  Mr.  Sotheby's  or  a 
quarter  as  good  as  Mr.  Pope's.  Perhaps  a  hun- 
dred of  my  readers  will  try. 

You  can  see  here  how  Hector  "  turned  the  scale 
when  he  appeared." 

As  when  two  scales  are  charged  with  doubtful  loads, 
From  side  to  side  the  trembling  balance  nods 


HECTOR.  17 

(While  some  laborious  matron,  just  and  poor, 

With  nice  exactness  weighs  her  vvooly  store). 

Till,  poised  aloft,  the  resting  beam  suspends 

Each  equal  weight ;  nor  this,  nor  that  descends : 

So  stood  the  war,  till  Hector's  matchless  might 

With  fates  prevailing,  turn'd  the  scale  of  fight. 

Fierce  as  a  whirlwind  up  the  wall  he  flies. 

And  fires  his  host  with  loud  repeated  cries : 

Advance, ye  Trojans!  lend  your  valiant  hands. 

Haste  to  the  fleet,  and  toss  the  blazing  brands. 

They  hear,  they  run ;  and,  gathering  at  his  call, 

Raise  scaling  engines,  and  ascend  the  wall : 

Around  the  works  a  wood  of  glittering  spears 

Shoots  up,  and  all  the  rising  host  appears. 

A  ponderous  stone  bold  Hector  heaved  to  throw, 

Pointed  above,  and  rough  and  gross  below : 

Not  two  strong  men  the  enormous  weight  could  raise. 

Such  men  as  live  in  our  degenerate  days. 

Yet  this,  as  easy  as  a  swain  would  bear 

The  snowy  fleece,  he  toss'd,  and  shook  in  air: 

For  Jove  upheld,  and  lightened  of  its  load 

The  unwieldy  rock,  the  labour  of  a  god. 

Thus  arm'd,  before  the  folded  gates  he  came, 

Of  massy  substance,  and  stupendous  frame ; 

With  iron  bars  and  brazen  hinges  strong, 

On  lofty  beams  of  solid  timber  hung : 


15  BOYS     HEROES. 

Then,  thundering  through  the  planks  with  forceful  sw.xy. 

Drives  the  sharp  rock;  the  solid  beams  give  wa}-, 

The  folds  are  shatter'd ;  from  the  crackling  door 

Leap  the  resounding  bars,  the  flying  hinges  roar. 

Now  rushing  in,  the  furious  chief  appears, 

Gloomy  as  night !  and  shakes  two  shining  spears : 

A  dreadful  gleam  from  his  bright  armour  came, 

And  from  his  eyeballs  flashed  a  living  flame. 

He  moves  a  god,  resistless  in  his  course, 

And  seems  a  match  for  more  than  mortal  force. 

Then  pouring  after,  through  the  gaping  space : 

A  tide  of  Trojans  flows,  and  fills  the  place. 

The  Greeks  behold,  they  tremble,  and  they  fly; 

The  shore  is  heaped  with  dead  and  tumult  fills  the  sky. 

Hector  shows  himself  a  fearless  leader,  and  he 
has  the  great  gift  of  encouraging  his  men.  Once 
and  again  they  drive  the  Grecians  —  once  even  to 
their  ships  —  and  Hector  with  his  torch  sets  fire  to 
them. 

Meanwhile  Achilles  is  sulking  in  his  tents.  But 
he  permits  Patroclus  to  go  out  against  the  Greeks 
in  his  armour.  Here  and  now  it  must  be  con- 
fessed Hector  is  afraid,  and  he  runs  away.  This 
is  what  I  meant  when,  in  my  little  joke,  I  said  he 


HECTOR  19 

learned  too  well  how  to  run.  But  Apollo  encour- 
aged him,  he  returned  to  the  hght  and  killed  Pa- 
troclus.  Thus  he  became  the  possessor  of  Achilles' 
armor.  Achilles  asked  for  the  body  of  Patroclus, 
and  Hector  refused  to  surrender  it.  Polydamas 
proposes  that  he  should  retire  into  the  city.  And, 
for  one,  knowing  the  result,  I  always  wished  he  had 
done  so,  from  an  eager  desire  to  know  how,  in  that 
case,  the  Iliad  would  have  ended.  But  Hector  re- 
fused. Apollo  bade  him  decline  a  contest  with 
Achilles  —  and  when  Achilles  in  his  new  armor 
came  on  the  field  to  avenge  Patroclus,  Priam  and 
Hecuba  both  implored  their  son  to  avoid  him,  and 
to  retreat.  But  Hector  would  not  obey.  He 
awaited  the  Greek  hero. 

When,  however,  he  saw  him,  in  the  terrors  of  the 
Vulcan-made  armor,  his  courage  failed  him.  Then 
was  it  that  he  fled  three  times  round  the  walls  of 
Troy. 

As  Hector  sees,  unusual  terrors  rise, 
Struck  by  some  god  he  fears,  recedes,  and  flies. 
He  leaves  the  gates,  he  leaves  the  walls  behind ; 
Achilles  follows  like  the  winged  wind, 


20  BOYS     HEROES. 

the  rapid  chase  they  held 

One  urged  by  fury,  one  by  fear  impelled, 

Swift  was  the  course ;  no  vulgar  prize  they  play, 
No  vulgar  victim  must  reward  the  day, 
(Such  as  in  races  crown  the  speedy  strife:) 
The  prize  contended  was  great  Hector's  life. 

Thus  three  times  round  the  Trojan  wall  they  fly. 
The  gazing  gods  lean  forward  from  the  sky ; 
To  whom,  while  eager  on  the  chase  they  look 
The'sire  of  mortals  and  immortals  spoke. 

Every  bo}'  is  indignant  as  he  reads  these  stories 
that  the  heroes  on  each  side  are  so  heavily  "  handi- 
capped," that  is,  that  just  in  the  crisis  of  things  one 
or  two  gods  or  goddesses,  no  better  than  men  or 
women,  interfere  to  upset  the  result  which  might 
have  been.  In  this  particular  issue  Zeus  and 
Athene  determine  that  Hector  must  fall,  and  Ath- 
ene even  assumes  the  form  of  Deiphobus  to  urge 
him  to  make  a  stand,  which  he  does  and  dies. 

"  'Tis  so  —  heaven  wills  it,  and  my  hour  is  nigh  ! 
I  deem'd  Deiphobus  had  heard  my  call. 
But  he  secure  lies  guarded  in  the  wall. 


HECTOR.  2 1 

A  god  deceived  me ;  Pallas,  'twas  thy  deed, 

Death  and  black  fate  approach !  'tis  I  must  bleed. 

No  refuge  now,  no  succour  from  above. 

Great  Jove  deserts  me,  and  the  son  of  Jove, 

Propitious  once,  and  kind !     Then  welcome  fate  1 

'Tis  true  I  perish,  yet  I  perish  great : 

Yet  in  a  mighty  deed  I  shall  expire. 

Let  future  ages  hear  it  and  admire  !  " 

Fierce  at  his  word  his  weighty  sword  he  drew, 

And,  all  collected,  on  Achilles  flew. 

When  all  the  starry  train  emblaze  the  sphere 
So  shone  the  point  of  great  Achilles'  spear. 
In  his  right  hand  he  waves  the  weapon  round, 
Eyes  the  whole  man,  and  meditates  the  wound; 
But  the  rich  mail  Patroclus  lately  wore, 
Securely  cased  the  warrior's  body  o'er. 
One  space  at  length  he  spies,  to  let  in  fate, 
Where  'twixt  the  neck  and  throat  the  jointed  plate 
Gave  entrance :  through  that  penetrable  part 
Furious  he  drove  the  well-directed  dart : 

Prone  on  the  field  the  bleeding  warrior  lies, 

While  thus  triumphing  stern  Achilles  cries : 

"  At  last  is  Hector  stretch'd  upon  the  plain, 

Who  feared  no  vengeance  for  Patroclus  slain  : 

Then,  prince !  you  should  have  fear'd,  what  now  you  feel. 


22  BOYS     HEROES. 

Achilles  absent,  was  Achilles  still ; 
Yet  a  short  space  the  great  avenger  staid, 
Then  low  in  dust  thy  strength  and  glory  laid. 
Peaceful  he  sleeps,  with  all  our  rites  adorn'd 
Forever  honor'd  and  forever  mourn'd  I " 

I  suppose  that  our  sympathy  for  Hector  comes 
mostly  from  our  feeling  that  he  is  quite  over- 
weighted. He  is  almost  the  only  thorough  fighter 
on  the  Trojan  side.  The  Greeks  play  out  such 
pieces  as  Agamemnon,  Diomedes,  the  two  Ajaxes, 
Ulysses  and  Achilles  himself,  and  the  poor  Tro- 
jans can  only  offer  this  one  Hector  with  any  pre- 
tence that  he  equals  them.  Now  we  always  take 
the  side  of  a  person  so  over-matched.  Then  we 
like  him  because  he  does  think  of  other  things 
than  blood  and  carnage.  He  can  kiss  his  wife  and 
play  with  his  baby.  And  we  like  him  because 
Achilles  treated  him  so  badly — or,  as  my  young 
friend  said,  "  because  Achilles  was  such  a  hog  !  " 

High  o'er  the  slain  the  great  Achilles  stands, 
Begirt  with  heroes  and  surrounding  bands ; 
And  thus  aloud,  while  all  the  host  attends; 
Princes  and  leaders  I  countrymen  and  friends  I 


HECTOR.  23 

Is  not  Troy  fallen  already  ?     Haste,  ye  powers ! 
See  if  already  their  deserted  towers 
Are  left  unmanned ;  or  if  they  yet  retain 
The  souls  of  heroes,  their  great  Hector  slain. 
Meanwhile,  ye  sons  of  Greece,  in  triumph  bring, 
The  corpse  of  Hector,  and  your  paeans  sing. 
Be  this  the  song,  slow-moving  toward  the  shore, 
"  Hector  is  dead,  and  Dion  is  no  more." 
Then  his  fell  soul  a  thought  of  vengeance  bred 
( Unworthy  of  himself,  and  of  the  dead ) ; 
The  nervous  ancles  bored,  his  feet  he  bound 
With  thongs  inserted  through  the  double  wound; 
These  fix'd  up  high  behind  the  rolling  wain. 
His  graceful  head  was  trail'd  along  the  plain. 
Proud  on  his  car  the  insulting  victor  stood. 
And  bore  aloft  his  arms,  distilling  blood. 
He  smites  the  steeds;  the  rapid  chariot  flies; 
The  sudden  clouds  of  circling  dust  arise. 
Now  lost  is  all  that  formidable  air; 
The  face  divine,  and  long-descending  hair. 
Purple  the  ground,  and  streak  the  sable  sand; 
Deform'd,  dishonor'd,  in  his  native  land, 
Given  to  the  rage  of  an  insulting  throng. 
And,  in  his  parent's  sight,  now  dragg'd  along ! 

Here  is  Priam's  prayer  as  he  begged  Achilles  to 
surrender  the  body. 


24  boys'  heroes. 


Think,  O  Achilles,  semblance  of  the  gods, 

On  thine  own  father,  full  of  days  like  me. 

And  trembling  on  the  gloomy  verge  of  life. 

Some  neighbour  chief,  it  may  be,  even  now 

Oppresses  him,  and  there  is  none  at  hand, 

No  friend  to  succor  him  in  his  distress. 

Yet,  doubtless,  hearing  that  Achilles  lives 

He  still  rejoices,  hoping  day  by  day. 

That  one  day  he  shall  see  the  face  again 

Of  his  own  son,  from  distant  Troy  returned. 

But  me  no  comfort  cheers,  whose  bravest  sons, 

So  late  the  flower  of  Ilium,  are  all  slain. 

When  Greece  came  hither,  I  had  fifty  sons; 

But  fiery  Mars  hath  thinned  them.  —  One  I  had. 

One,  more  than  all  my  sons,  the  strength  of  Troy, 

Whom  standing  for  his  country,  thou  hast  slain  — 

Hector.     His  body  to  redeem  I  come 

Into  Achaia's  fleet,  bringing  myself, 

Ransom  inestimable  to  thy  tent. 

Rev'rence  the  gods,  Achilles !  recollect 

Thy  father;  for  his  sake  compassion  show 

To  me  more  pitiable  still,  who  draw 

Home  to  my  lips  ( humiliation  yet 

Unseen  on  earth,)  his  hand  who  slew  my  son  I 

How  sweetly  Helen  mourned  him.     Of  all  the 
heroes  he  was  the  one  who  had  been  good  to  her. 


HECTOR.  25 

Oh  Hector !  thou  vvert  rooted  in  my  heart ; 
No  brother  there  had  half  so  large  a  part. 
Not  less  than  twenty  years  are  now  passed  o'er, 
Since  first  I  landed  on  the  Trojan  shore, 
Since  Paris -lured  me  from  my  home  away. 
(  Would  I  had  died  before  that  fatal  day ! ) 
Yet  it  was  ne'er  my  fate  from  thee  to  find 
A  deed  ungentle,  or  a  word  unkind. 
When  others  cursed  the  authoress  of  their  woe, 
Thy  pity  checked  my  sorrows  in  their  flow : 
If  by  my  sisters  or  the  queen  reviled, 
(For  the  good  king,  like  thee,  was  ever  mild) 
Thy  kindness  still  has  all  my  grief  beguil'd. 
For  thee  I  mourn,  and  mourn  myself  in  thee. 
Nor  hope,  nor  solace  now  remains  to  me ; 
Sad  Helen  has  no  friend,  now  thou  art  gone. 


11. 


HORATIUS    COCLES. 


HORATIUS  COCLES 
was  a  great  favorite 
among  the  Roman  people 
from  a  very  early  time.  The 
stories  about  him  varied 
more  or  less,  as  may  well 
happen  when  stories  are 
told  from  father  to  son  gen- 
erations  before    they   are 

written  down.     But,  in  one 
26 


HORATltJS    COCLtb. 


27 


form  or  another,  every  historian  of  early  Rome 
tells  the  tale. 

The  historian  Niebuhr  suggested  that  the  stories 
we  have  of  early  Roman  history  must  have  been, 
at  one  time  or  another,  transmitted  in  the  form  of 
ballads.  And,  with  a  great  deal  of  ingenuity,  and 
a  great  deal  of  spirit,  Mr.  Macaulay  reproduced 
some  of  these  supposed  ballads  from  the  history. 
These  he  called  Lays  of  Ancient  Rome,  and  they 
have  awakened,  for  this  generation,  an  interest 
wholly  new  in  the  stories.  Mr.  Macaulay  himself, 
indeed,  is  more  likely  to  be  remembered,  two  hun- 
dred years  hence,  on  their  account,  than  for  any- 
thing else  which  he  has  written. 

So  is  it  that  almost  every  schoolboy  who  will  read 
this  article,  has  read,  and  perhaps  has  told  from 
the  platform  on  "Declamation  Day,"  that 

Then  out  spake  brave  Horatius 

The  Captain  of  the  Gate, 
"  To  every  man  upon  this  earth 

Death  cometh,  soon  or  late. 
And  how  can  man  die  better 

Than  facing  dreadful  odds 


28 


BOYS     HEROES. 


For  the  ashes  of  his  fathers, 
And  the  temples  of  his  Gods !  " 

It  would  be  rather  an  interesting  thing  to  com- 
pare the  different  stories  about  the  three  who  held 


"  WHERE    STOOD    THE    DAUNTLESS    THREE." 

the  bridge,  as  they  were  told  by  the  different  his- 
torians of  repute.  Any  boy  or  girl  who  lives  where 
there  is  a  good  public  library  can  do  this,  easily 
enough,  by  looking  out  the  article  "  Horatius 
Codes  "  in  Smith's  larger  Dictionary  of  Biography, 
and  then  finding  the  authorities  cited  there.  Some 
of  thein  have  been  translated  into  English,  and  for 


HORATIUS    COCLES.  29 

the  rest,  the  boys  who  are  studying  Latin  could 
hammer  out  the  meaning  without  much  difficulty. 
Indeed,  that  would  not  be  a  bad  subject  to  give  to 
a  bright  class  at  school  for  a  "  composition  "  to 
show  the  difference  between  the  various  narratives 
of  "  The  Battle  at  the  Bridge." 

Here  is  the  story  as  Plutarch  tells  it : 

Porsenna,  making  a  sharp  assault,  obliged  the  defenders 
to  retire  to  Rome.  In  their  entrance  they  had  almost  ad- 
mitted their  enemy  into  the  city  with  them.  But  Publicola, 
by  sallying  out  at  the  gate,  prevented  them.  He  joined  bat- 
tle by  the  side  of  Tiber  —  and  opposed  the  enemy  as  they 
pressed  on  with  great  multitudes  —  but  at  last  he  sank  under 
desperate  wounds  and  was  carried  out  of  the  fight.  The 
same  fortune  befell  Lucretius,  so  that  the  Romans  in  dismay 
retreated  into  the  city  for  safety,  and  Rome  was  in  great  haz- 
ard of  being  taken,  for  the  enemy  forced  their  way  upon  the 
wooden  bridge  over  Tiber.  But  Horatius  Codes,  seconded 
by  Herminius  and  Lartius,  who  were  two  of  the  first  men  of 
Rome,  made  head  against  them.  Horatius  had  the  name  of 
Codes,  from  the  loss  of  one  of  his  eyes  in  the  wars  —  or,  as 
others  write,  from  the  depression  in  his  nose  —  which  left 
nothing  in  the  middle  to  separate  the  two  eyes  —  and  thus 
made  both  his  eyes  to  appear  as  one  :  —  hence,  meaning  to  say 
Cyclops,  by  a  mispronunciation   they   called    him   Codes. 


30  boys'  heroes. 

This  Codes  kept  the  bridge,  and  held  back  the  enemy  till 
his  own  party  broke  it  down  behind,  and  then  with  his  armour 
dropped  into  the  river,  and  swam  to  the  hither  side,  with  a 
wound  in  his  hip  from  a  Tuscan  spear.* 

Publicola,  admiring  his  courage,  proposed  at  once  that 
the  Romans  should  every  one  make  him  a  present  of  a  day's 
provisions,  and  afterwards  give  him  as  much  land  as  he 
could  plough  around  in  one  day,  and  besides,  erected  a  brazen 
statue  to  his  honor  in  the  temple  of  Vulcan,  as  a  requittal 
for  the  lameness  caused  by  his  wound. 

This  statue,  it  would  appear,  remained  visible  to 
a  late  period  in  Roman  history. 

All  this  happened  when  the  republic  was  newly 
formed,  Publicola  being,  indeed,  one  of  the  first  two 
consuls.  The  name  of  Horatius  is  enough  to  show 
that  Codes  was  one  of  the  great  Horatian  family, 
which  appears  very  early  in  history  and  lasted  till 
after  the  Empire  began.  The  poet  Horace  was  con- 
nected with  it  in  some  way ;  and  every  boy  named 
"  Horace  "  may  look  to  it  as  having  given  him  his 
name.  So  we  know  that  Horatius  Codes  was,  in 
a  fashion,  a  relation  of  the  three  Horatii. 

*  This  is  one  of  Plutarch's  frequent  absurdities.  Cyclops  is  a  Greek 
word,  and  there  was  no  reason  why  the  Romans  should  speak  Greek. 


ALONE    STOOD    BRAVE    HORATIUS. 


HORATIUS    COCLES.  33 

Now  it  may  have  been  that  the  Horatian  fam- 
ily, or  gens^  as  it  is  the  rather  affected  fashion  to 
call  it  now,  was  specially  prolific  of  brave  men, 
ready  to  die  for  their  country.  Or  it  may  be,  that, 
some  fifty  or  a  hundred  years  after,  there  was  some 
bard  among  the  retainers  of  the  family  or  in  the 
family  itself,  who  was  specially  good  in  composing 
and  singing  the  lays  of  old  times.  In  that  case 
there  would  be  more  Lays  of  the  Horatian  family 
than  of  any  other,  and  their  lays  would  have  lasted 
longer. 

Mr.  Macaulay,  in  his  ballad,  clings  very  closely 
to  this  story.  He  gives  to  it  the  confirmation  of 
the  statue. 

And,  in  all  such  things,  a  visible  statue  is  a  great 
help  to  the  man  who  sings  the  song. 

And  they  made  a  molten  image 

And  set  it  up  on  high, 
And  there  it  stands  until  this  day 

To  witness  if  I  lie. 
It  stands  in  the  Comitium, 

Plain  for  all  folk  to  see, 
Horatius  in  his  harness 

Halting  upon  one  knee. 


34  BOY  S    HEROES. 

And  underneath  is  written 

In  letters  all  of  gold, 
How  valiantly  he  kei)t  the  bridge 

In  the  brave  days  of  old. 

The  poet  Horace  himself  says  that  "  brave  men 
lived  before  Agamemnon;  "  and  he  says  that  the 
reason  why  no  one  remembered  them  was  that 
they  had  no  Homer  to  write  about  them. 

Swords  flashed  and  lances  flew,  armor  rimg 
Before  Atrides  fought  or  Homer  sung. 

This  is  a  hint  to  people  who  would  build  up  the 
reputation  of  their  families,  that  they  will  do  well 
not  to  spend  so  much  money  on  perishable  mar- 
ble, and  to  do  more  to  encourage  the  young  poets 
of  the  household. 

Horatius  Codes  is  the  hero  who  represents  men 
who  have  had  to  stand  alone  for  their  country.  And 
he  is  not  simply  a  selected  champion  for  his  country, 
as  David  is  when  he  kills  Goliath,  or  as  Hector  is 
when  he  fights  Achilles  before  the  walls  of  Troy, 
As  the  story  is  told,  the  whole  fate  of  his  country 
*'  pivots  "  upon  him.     Now  this  is  often  the  case 


HORATIUS    COCLES.  35 

when  people  do  not  know  that  it  is  so.  The  wise 
man  saves  the  city,  and  no  one  thanks  him  for  sav- 
ing it.  But  the  instances  are  few  in  history  where 
in  a  picturesque  and  distinct  way  one  man  so  stands 
out  that  you  see  that  his  success  is  the  success  Oi" 
his  country  and  that  his  fall  is  his  country's  fall. 

We  remember  Arnold  von  Winkelried  as  such  a 
man,  but  the  crisis  is  less  than  in  Horatius'  success. 
Jane  Dare,  the  Maid  of  Orleans,  may  be  spoken 
of  in  that  way.  While  she  succeeded,  France  suc- 
ceeded. When  she  failed,  France  failed.  But  here 
is  rather  an  instance  where  the  country  needed  a 
leader  and  found  one.  In  the  case  of  Horatius  it 
is  not  a  leader  who  was  needed  ;  Publicola  was  a 
sufficient  leader.  Horatius  had  a  great  opportunity 
and  he  was  sufifcient  for  it.  When  John  Hampden 
took  the  whole  shock  of  the  anger  and  harm  of  the 
king,  he  was  such  a  man.  But  Hampden  was  onl; 
one  of  many  who  in  turn  would  have  taken  the 
same  stand.  Hampden's  case  was  the  first  one  on 
trial,  and  with  the  sturdy  pluck  which  distinguishes 
Englishmen,  he  stood  the  assault,  although  it  were 
led  by  his  king.     In  American  history  Mr.  Joshua 


36  boys'  heroes. 

Giddings  is  somewhat  such  a  man.  He  represented 
the  People  at  a  time  when  the  lower  House  of  Con- 
gress did  not  want  to  hear  the  People.  Then  the 
House  would  turn  him  out.  The  People  would 
elect  him  again.  The  House  would  turn  him  out 
again.  The  time  came  when  the  People  again  con- 
trolled the  House,  and  to  that  time  I  suppose  he 
had  looked  forward. 

But  as  I  said  before,  it  is  only  because  we  do  not 
see  very  deeply  into  the  causes  of  things  that  we 
see  but  few  such  picturesque  instances  and  pre- 
serv^e  the  names  of  but  few  of  such  heroes.  The 
proverb  says  that  "  for  want  of  a  nail  the  shoe  was 
lost,  and  for  want  of  a  shoe  the  horse  was  lost,  and 
for  want  of  a  horse  the  rider  was  lost,  and  for  want 
of  a  rider  the  army  was  lost,  and  for  want  of  an 
army  the  crown  was  lost,  and  all  for  the  want  of  a 
two-penny  nail."  But  that  seems  to  me  but  a  bleak 
way  of  telling  history. 

I  like  to  begin  at  the  other  end,  and  to  work  for- 
ward and  upward.      I  would  tell  the  story  thus  : 

There  was  a  boy  whom  we  will  name  Luke  Var- 
num.     He  was  fifteen  years  old,  and  he  was  lame  of 


HORATIUS   COCLES.  37 

his  left  foot.  So  when  every  other  boy  in  Number 
Five,  and  every  man,  old  and  young,  shouldered 
his  firelock  and  marched  off  to  join  General  Stark, 
and  go  and  fight  the  Hessians  at  Bennington,  Luke 
was  left  at  home.  He  limped  out  and  held  the 
stirrup  for  Lieutenant  Chittinden  to  mount,  and 
then  he  had  to  stay  at  home  with  the  babies  and 
the  women. 

The  men  had  been  gone  an  hour  and  a  half  when 
three  men  galloped  up  on  horseback.  And  Luke 
went  down  to  the  rails  to  see  who  they  were.  "  Is 
there  nobody  here  .''  "  said  one  of  them. 

"  Yes,"  said  Luke,  "  I  am  here." 

"  I  see  that,"  said  the  first  man,  laughing.  "  What 
I  mean  is,  is  there  nobody  here  can  set  a  shoe  ? " 

"  I  think  I  can,"  said  Luke.  "  I  often  tend  fire 
for  Jonas.  I  can  blow  the  bellows,  and  I  can  hold 
the  horse's  foot.  Anyway,  I  will  start  up  the 
fire." 

So  Luke  went  into  the  forge  and  took  down  the 
tinder-box  and  struck  a  light.  He  built  the  fire, 
and  hunted  up  half  a  dozen  nails  which  Jonas  had 
left  unintentionally,  and  he   had  even  made  two 


38  boys'  heroes. 

more  when  a  fourth  horseman  came  slowly  down 
on  a  walk. 

"  What  luck,"  said  he,  "  to  find  a  forge  with  the 
fire  lighted  ! " 

"  We  found  one,"  said  Marvin,  "  with  a  boy  who 
knew  how  to  light  it."  And  the  other  speaker  flung 
himself  off  the  horse  meanwhile. 

And  Luke  pared  the  hoof  of  the  dainty  creature, 
and  measured  the  shoe,  which  was  too  big  for  her. 
He  heated  it  white,  and  bent  it  closer,  to  the  proper 
size.     "It  is  a  poor  fit,"  he  said,  "but  it  will  do." 

"  It  will  do  very  well,"  said  her  rider.  "  But  she 
is  very  tender-footed,  and  I  do  not  dare  trust  her 
five  miles  unshod." 

And  for  pride's  sake,  the  two  first  nails  Luke 
drove  were  those  he  had  made  himself.  And  when 
the  shoe  was  fast,  he  said :  "  Tell  Jonas  that  I  het 
up  the  forge  —  and  put  on  the  shoe." 

"We  will  tell  him,"  said  the  Colonel,  laughing, 
and  he  rode  on.  But  one  of  the  other  horsemen 
tarried  a  minute,  and  said,  "  Boy,  no  ten  men  who 
left  you  to-day  have  served  your  country  as  you 
have.     It  is  Colonel  Warner." 


HORATIUS    COCLES.  39 

When  I  read  in  the  big  books  of  history  how 
Colonel  Warner  led  up  his  regiment  just  in  time  to 
save  the  day  at  Bennington,  I  am  apt  to  think  of 
Luke  Varnum. 

When  I  read  that  that  day  decided  the  battle  of 
Saratoga,  and  that  Saratoga  determined  that  Amer- 
ica should  be  independent,  I  think  of  Luke  Varnum. 

When  I  go  to  see  monuments  erected  in  mem- 
ory of  Colonel  Warner,  and  General  Stark,  and 
even  poor  old  Burgoym'^,  I  think  of  Luke  Varnum 
and  others  like  him. 

And  then  sometimes  I  wonder  whether  every 
man  and  boy  of  us  who  bravely  and  truly  does  the 
very  best  thing  he  knows  how  to  do,  does  not  have 
the  future  of  the  world  resting  on  him.  If  it  be  so 
there  are,  all  unknown  in  the  world,  a  good  many 
persons  like  Horatius  Codes. 


III. 


ALEXANDER   THE   GREAT. 


T3  OYS  and  girls  are  glad  to  see  young  people 
-^— ^  come  forward  well,  when  they  read  history. 
There  are  four  or  five  people  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  who  have  set  it  forward  in  young  life,  and 
have  shown  that  much  may  be  entrusted  to  young 
life  which  is  generally  left  to  persons  far  advanced. 
Alexander  the  Great  died  when  he  was  thirty-two ; 
but  he  had  wholly  changed  the  history  of  the  world 
before  he  died.  Raphael  died  when  he  was  thirty- 
six  ;  Lord  Byron  died  when  he  was  thirty-six. 

When  I  was  a  boy,  every  boy  in  college  knew 
that  William  Pitt  was  in  Parliament  when  he  was 
twenty-one,  was  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  when 
twenty-two,  and  that  he  was  Prime  Minister  of 
England  before  he  was  twenty-four  years  old.     I 

remember  a  college  poem  of  mine,  written  when  1 

40 


ALEXANDER    THE    GREAT.  41 

was  only  seventeen,  in  which  were  the  following 

lines : 

Will  youthful  ardor  youth's  success  permit  ? 
Search  through  all  history,  find  one  only  Pitt. 

The  lines  were  certainly  unfortunate.  For  the 
most  interesting  thing  about  this  William  Pitt  is 
that  he  was  son  of  the  other  William  Pitt  — 
that  both  father  and  son  were  prime  ministers  — 
the  elder  being  the  greatest  minister  England  ever 
had.  But  what  I  meant,  in  the  couplet,  was  that 
the  younger  was  the  only  prime  minister  Eng- 
land had  had  so  young.  And  this  was  true. 
There  have  been  plenty  of  "royal  favorites"  as 
young,  but  they  were  not,  strictly,  ministers.  I 
have  lived  long  enough  also,  to  know  that  it  is  a 
great  pity  for  the  world  that  there  was  more  than 
one  Pitt,  and  that  this  particular  Pitt  ever  was 
prime  minister.  The  world  would  be  much  better 
off  to-day,  I  think,  had  he  spent  his  life  in  making 
heads  to  pins,  or  in  spinning  cotton,  as  I  believe 
he  should  have  done  on  the  crack  theory  of  Politi- 
cal Economy. 

To  go  back  to  Alexander,  he  and  Raphael  and 


42  BOYS     HEROES. 

Byron  will  always  be  favorites  among  young  people. 
Young  people  feel  that  it  would  be  a  nice  thing  if 
the  world  were  entrusted  more  to  them.  I  remem- 
ber that,  a  few  years  ago,  some  spirited  boys  en- 
gaged Faneuil  Hall,  in  Boston,  for  a  meeting  to 
make  a  protest  against  the  statute  which  prohibits 
them  from  voting  in  Massachusetts  —  where  they 
are  permitted  to  hurrah  and  carry  torches. 

When  Alexander  came  to  the  front,  this  fascina- 
ting theory  of  youth  was  put  to  a  critical  test  — 
and  it  succeeded  wonderfully  well.  For  so  long  as 
Alexander  was  very  young,  he  succeeded.  And 
he  had  passed  thirty,  that  is,  he  had  entered  on 
what  young  people  call  middle  life,  before  his 
great  failure. 

Alexander's  life  illustrates  another  thing — the 
good  of  having  a  first-rate  father  and  mother,  and 
the  good  of  first-rate  education.  "He  inherited 
from  Philip,"  says  Dr.  Smith,  "his  cool  foresight 
and  practical  wisdom,  and  from  Olympias  his 
mother,  her  ardent  enthusiasm."  These  are  ex- 
cellent things  to  inherit.  Ardent  enthusiasm  and 
cool  foresight  are  a  combination   as  good  as  one 


ALEXANDER    THE    GREAT.  43 

could  ask,  for  a  start  on  successful  life.  Dr.  Smith 
adds,  alas,  that  he  inherited  "  ungovernable  pas- 
sions from  Olympias,  also."  Some  of  us  think 
that  no  passions  are  ungovernable.  But  it  was 
the  misfortune  of  poor  Alexander  that  he  did  not 
know  that  Spirit,  by  whose  alliance  only,  such 
passions  are  to  be  governed. 

His  mother  was  of  the  royal  family  of  Epirus, 
in  the  northern  part  of  what  is  now  the  little 
modern  kingdom  of  Greece.  Alexander  was  fond 
of  claiming  descent,  through  her,  from  Achilles. 
I  do  not  see  any  reason  for  supposing  that  he  was 
not  right  in  this  claim.  What  is  certain  is  that 
her  great-grandfather  was  King  of  Epirus  ;  and  the 
traditions  of  Achilles  say  that  his  son  Pyrrhus,  or 
Neoptolemus,  was  King  of  Epirus.  Between  Pyr- 
rhus and  Olympias  would  come  six  or  seven  hun- 
dred years  —  perhaps  twenty  generations.  But 
there  is  no  reason  why  the  genealogy  of  the  kings 
of  that  country  should  not  be  kept  as  well  for  those 
generations  as  the  genealogies  were  kept  for  the 
twenty  generations  between  Egbert  King  of  Eng- 
land and  the  Wars  of  the  Roses.     Alexander  cer- 


44  BOY  S    HEROES. 

tainly  had  a  better  chance  to  know  than  you  and 
I  have.  And  1  offer  this  as  a  good  rule  in  form- 
ing an  opinion  on  any  point  of  history  —  that  sen- 
sible men,  at  or  near  the  time  of  action,  had  many 
opportunities  for  knowing  the  truth  which  people 
cannot  have  one  thousand  years,  or  two  thousand 
or  more  years  away.  This  rule  will  seem  common- 
place, but  it  is,  in  truth,  very  generally  scorned. 

If  I  had  to  write  the  life  of  Alexander,  in  one 
hundred  words,  I  should  say  that  he  had  a  good 
education,  and  profited  by  it.  When  he  was  only 
sixteen,  Philip,  his  father,  left  him  in  charge  of 
Macedonia  while  he  was  at  war.  Four  years  after, 
Philip  died,  leaving  Alexander  king.  He  was  sur- 
rounded by  enemies.  But  he  marched  North,  and 
conquered  the  barbarians.  South,  and  conquered 
the  Greeks  and  then,  with  the  aid  of  all  of  them 
but  the  Lacedaemonians,  he  overran  Asia  Minor, 
Syria  and  Egypt  and  conquered  Persia.  He  after- 
wards marched  into  India,  but  did  not  remain  there. 
He  made  Babylon  his  capital  and  died  there  at 
the  age  of  thirty-two. 

But  when  I  asked  my  young  friend,  Tom  Hali- 


ALEXANDER    THE    GREAT. 


45 


day,  to  write  a  life  of  Alexander,  after  he  had  been 
reading  Plutarch  for  an  hour,  Tom  produced  this 
memoir,  and  I  found  he  had  used  up  his  hundred 


ALEXANDER    THE    GREAT. 

words  long  before  the  young  man  came  to  his 
throne. 

"There  came  a  man  called  Philanicus  who  had 
a  beautiful  white  horse,  which  he  offered  for  thir- 
teen talents.  But  when  they  tried  him,  he  proved 
to  be  so  vicious  that  no  one  dared  to  ride  him. 


46  boys'  heroes. 

Then  Alexander  spoke  up,  and  said  that  it  was  a 
great  shame  that  they  should  lose  such  a  beautiful 
horse  for  want  of  a  man  to  ride  him.  The  people 
all  laughed  at  him,  when  he  said  that  he  could 
manage  him  better  than  any  of  them,  and  they  told 
him  he  could  try. 

"  Alexander  walked  up  to  him,  and  turned  his 
head  towards  the  sun,  for  he  had  observed  that  it 
was  his  own  shadow  that  he  was  afraid  of.  He 
then  threw  off  his  upper  garments  and  gave  a 
spring  into  the  saddle  and  started  him  at  full 
speed." 

To  tell  you  the  truth,  I  think  Tom's  method  of 
writing  history  more  entertaining  than  mine.  And 
the  reason  why  Plutarch's  Z/z^^j- have  been  read  by 
almost  all  people  who  could  read,  now  for  fifteen 
hundred  and  more  years  since  they  were  written,  is 
that  they  are  all  crowded  full  of  just  such  stories 
of  separate  incidents,  well  wrought  out  in  detail. 
They  do  not  undertake  to  give  a  phiJosophical 
view  of  the  man's  life,  so  much  as  to  give  some 
very  vivid  pictures  of  separate  incidents  in  it.  One 
of  Plutarch's  Lives  is  thus  a  sort  of  picture  gallery. 


ALEXANDER    THE    GREAT.  47 

with  several  pictures  of  curious  or  important  events. 
But  a  regularly-built  biography  of  the  modern  fash- 
ion is  more  like  a  map,  on  which  the  various  things 
are  put  down  in  proper  relation  to  each  other.  It 
is  however,  all  the  same,  by  no  means  so  attractive 
at  the  first  sight,  and  there  is  a  certain  reality  given 
a  picture  to  which  no  map  can  pretend. 

Philip,  the  father  of  Alexander,  had  made  such 
preparation  as  he  could  for  the  invasion  of  Asia. 
The  Greeks  had  never  forgotten  the  invasions  by 
Darius  and  Xerxes.  There  was  a  permanent  quar- 
rel, indeed,  between  Greece  and  Persia.  And  you 
must  remember  that  Persia  held  Asia  Minor,  and 
drew  tribute  even  from  the  Greek  cities  on  its 
Western  coast.  So  that  when  Alexander  crossed 
the  Bosphorus  to  the  field  of  Troy,  he  was  in  the 
same  old  contest  with  which  in  the  Iliad^  Greek 
history  and  poetry  began  —  the  history  in  which 
our  friend  Hector  played  his  part  so  well.  First, 
Paris  crosses  to  Greece,  and  steals  Helen.  Then 
Greece  confederates  against  Troy,  crosses  to  Asia 
and  destroys  Troy.  Then,  after  five  or  six  cen- 
turies, in  which  there  have  been  many  raids,  back- 


48  boys'  heroes. 

wards  and  forwards,  Darius  makes  the  greatest 
raid  of  all,  comes  down  upon  the  Greeks,  and  is 
defeated  at  Marathon.  Ten  years  after,  Xerxes 
tries  again  and  is  defeated  at  Salamis.  The  next 
year,  the  great  Persian  fleet  is  destroyed  at  Mycale. 
The  march  of  the  ten  thousand,  when  the  younger 
Cyrus  attempts  to  take  possession  of  the  Persian 
throne,  is  a  Greek  effort  to  retaliate  —  so  far  as  the 
ten  thousand  are  concerned.  This  was  seventy- 
nine  years  after  Salamis ;  and  sixty-seven  years  after 
this,  Alexander  pays  off  the  Greek  debt  entirely, 
or  begins  to.  He  crosses  into  Asia  in  the  year 
334  before  Christ,  and  thirteen  years  after,  at  the 
battle  of  Arbela,  takes  possession  of  the  Persian 
Empire.  These  thirteen  years  distinctly  changed 
the  history  of  the  world. 

I  remember  that  I  used  to  wonder  why  when  he 
had  well-conquered  Babylon,  he  never  went  home 
to  Macedonia.  The  answer  is,  that  he  and  his  men 
were  too  much  fascinated  by  Eastern  luxury.  The 
tide  of  Empire  may  take  its  way  Westward,  but  the 
longings  for  luxury  always  turn  Eastward.  You 
have  heard  Mr.  Appleton's  joke,  that  good  Ameri- 


ALEXANDER    THE    GREAT.  49 

cans  go  to  Paris  when  they  die.  You  have  noticed 
perhaps,  that  rich  CaHfornians  go  to  New  York 
and  Paris  and  Rome  to  spend  their  money.  So 
when  Mark  Antony  took  possession  of  Alexandria, 
Alexandria  took  possession  of  him.  And,  in  just 
this  way,  when  Alexander  and  his  rough  Greeks 
found  themselves  in  the  luxuries  of  Babylon,  they 
were  just  like  these  unfortunate  Americans,  who 
will  read  these  lines  in  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of 
Italy  or  Germany  or  France,  and  shudder  when 
they  find  that  I  or  any  other  cynic  think  they  would 
be  much  better  off  at  home. 

When  I  was  a  schoolboy,  there  was  a  dialogue  in 
the  schoolbooks,  in  which  Alexander  was  repre- 
sented as  a  "Thracian  robber."  The  boys  stood 
in  attitudes  represented  in  a  picture,  and  the  dia- 
logue ended  by  Alexander's  saying  penitently,  "  Al- 
exander a  robber.^  let  me  reflect."  The  piece  was 
the  outgrowth  of  a  sort  of  sentimental  philosophy 
which  was  in  vogue  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  it  will 
certainly  not  stand  any  fair  criticism.  Wherever 
Alexander  went,  he  left  something  better  than  he 
found.     He  admitted  Egypt  into  the  circulation  of 


5©  BOYS     HEROES. 

the  Mediterranean  System  by  building  Alexandria. 
He  introduced  India  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Wes- 
tern World.  He  made  easy  and  systematic  the  com- 
munications between  Europe  and  Asia.  Thought- 
ful persons  are  used  to  say  that  in  the  time  of  our 
Saviour,  Palestine  was  the  very  centre  of  the  Old 
World.  It  was  so.  It  was  the  place  from  which  the 
Infinite  Revelation  of  Absolute  Religion  could  most 
easily  go  out  to  the  world.  It  was  so,  because 
Alexander  had  established  his  empire.  If  it  were 
only  that  he  made  the  Greek  language  the  language 
of  the  civilization  of  those  centuries  — in  that  single 
change  Alexander  would  have  changed  history. 

"  The  conquests  of  Alexander,"  says  Mr.  Samuel 
Eliot,  "  smoothed  the  way  for  the  chariot  wheels  of 
the  Gospel." 


IV. 


HANNIBAL. 


T  T  THEN  making  a  list  of  the  heroes  who  in- 
^  ^  terest  intelligent  boys,  I  consulted  many 
friends,  but  we  did  not  always  agree.  But  I  think 
they  all  said  that  Hannibal  should  be  on  the  list, 
yet  I  think  none  of  them  said  why,  I  believe  he 
stands  out  in  the  memory  of  boys  who  have  read 
more  or  less  of  Roman  history,  as  none  of  the  men 
do  who  were  opposed  to  him  ;  though  many  of  these 
were  certainly  great  men,  and  though  we  know 
much  more  of  them  than  we  know  of  him.  Fabius, 
Marcellus,  Cornelius  Scipio,  for  instance,  are  all  of 
them  men  remarkable  for  what  they  were  and  what 
they  did ;  they  fill  important  places  in  Roman  his- 
tory ;  their  lives  are  fully  and  well  written.  But  I 
do  not  think  any  one  would  name  them  on  a  list  of 

boys'  heroes. 

51 


52 


boys'  heroes. 


I  should  account  for  this  fondness  for  Hannibal, 
wherever  it  exists,  chiefly  by  the  fact  that  he  beat 
the  Romans  so  often,  and  kept  them  under  so  long. 
It  is  just  as  one  likes  Hector,  because  being  on 
the  weaker  side  he  held  his  own  so  well  against  the 
Greeks  who  in  the  end  were  to  crush  him  and  his. 
Doctor  Johnson  says  you  cannot  see  two  dogs  fight- 
ing without  sympathizing  with  one  dog  or  the  other. 
If  this  is  true,  I  think  right-minded  people  would 
generally  sympathize  with  the  weaker  dog,  suppos- 
ing that  neither  dog  had  forfeited  sympathy.  This 
is  certain,  that  as  schoolboys  wade  along  through 
the  rather  dull  history  of  the  Roman  republic,  which, 
as  taught  them,  is  only  a  chronicle  of  five  centuries 
of  war,  they  tire  of  the  steady  story  of  brute  suc- 
cess. It  is  like  watching  a  pile-driver  all  day  long, 
as  it  knocks  the  piles  down  into  the  mud.  You 
would  be  glad  to  have  one  pile  rebel  and  refuse  to 
go  down.  So,  when  Brennus  at  the  head  of  his 
Gauls,  or  Hannibal  at  the  head  of  his  Carthagini- 
ans, turns  the  tide  of  luck  for  a  few  years,  you  are 
much  obliged  to  them  if  it  were  only  that  they  bring 
some  variety  into  a  tedious  story. 


HANNIBAL.  53 

Then  there  is  the  pretty  incident,  where  his 
father  takes  him  as  a  little  boy  to  the  altar  of  his 
country,  and  makes  him  swear  hostility  to  Rome. 
You  and  I,  who  are  still  boys,  like  to  think  that 
a  boy  can  make  up  his  mind,  early  in  life,  what  he 
will  do,  and  what  he  will  be,  that  he  can  keep  on 
the  lines  he  proposed  then,  and  come  out  triumph- 
antly, as  for  nearly  thirty  years  at  least  after  his  vow 
Hannibal  did. 

The  little  stor^^  is  certainly  true.  And  I  suppose 
there  were  plenty  of  people  in  Carthage  who  held 
to  a  peace  policy.  I  suppose  they  said  that  this 
hatred  of  the  Romans  was  a  very  old-fashioned 
prejudice.  I  suppose  they  said  that  a  new  genera- 
tion of  Romans  had  grown  up,  that  they  were  ami- 
able Romans  and  good  Romans,  and  that  they 
spoke  the  Carthaginian  language  quite  well,  and 
that  they  liked  to  buy  the  Carthaginian  figs  and 
that,  in  short,  they  were  ver}^  different  Romans  from 
the  Romans  whom  Hannibal's  father  hated,  and 
whom  the  little  boy  had  sworn  to  overthrow.  But 
Hannibal  did  not  believe  such  people  when  he  came 
to  be  a  man.    He  had  found  out,  somehow  or  other, 


54  boys'  heroes. 

what  is  the  only  secret  of  success,  namely,  that  only 
he  who  endures  to  the  end  shall  be  saved. 

He  did  not  mean  to  have  his  nation  put  up  with 
little  aggressions  or  great  aggressions.  He  did  not 
mean  to  have  Rome  cut  in  on  her  colonies  or  inter- 
fere with  her  citizens  in  their  trade.  Up  and  down 
the  Mediterranean  he  meant  that  the  prestige  of  a 
Carthaginian  citizen  should  be  as  good  as  that  of  a 
Roman  citizen.  And  he  would  have  gained  this,  if 
his  people  had  stood  by  him. 

Some  people  will  tell  you  that  they  failed  be- 
cause theirs  was  a  mercantile  state,  and  their  gov- 
ernment the  government  of  merchants.  It  has  been 
quite  the  fashion  in  England,  for  the  last  thirty 
years,  for  grumblers  to  say  this,  and  to  warn  Eng- 
land that  if  her  government  is  carried  on  in  the  in- 
terests of  merchants,  she  will  go  to  destruction  as 
Carthage  did.  You  will  find  England  called  the 
"modern  Carthage  " in  satires  and  philippics.  But 
I  do  not  believe  it  can  be  proved  that  Carthage 
failed  because  she  was  governed  by  merchants.  On 
the  other  hand  I  think  that  the  resources  which 
Carthage  had  gained  from  mercantile  adventure, 


HANNIBAL.  55 

such  as  the  gold  and  silver  and  tin  and  copper  and 
iron  which  her  seamen  brought  her  from  distant 
mines,  with  the  skill  of  those  seamen,  and  the  vigor 
of  her  adventurers —  I  think  that  these  gave  her  the 
means  to  carry  on  the  struggle  with  Rome.  Rome 
was  not  what  we  should  call  a  mercantile  power 
but  a  military  power.  That  is,  the  first  thought  of 
each  citizen  was  not  trade  but  art. 

I  have  said  the  Carthaginians  failed  because  they 
could  not  hold  on.  Their  policy  was  vacillating. 
They  deserted  Hannibal  who  never  deserted  them. 
They  could  not  endure  to  the  end.  If  anybody 
wants  to  know  why  they  finally  went  to  pieces  and 
disappeared  in  the  long  struggle  with  Rome,  he 
must  find  out  why  they  could  not  hold  on. 

Well,  the  answer  to  that  question  is  the  same 
which  you  have  when  you  ask  the  same  question 
about  the  people  of  Jericho  and  Ai  and  all  the 
Canaanites  whom  Joshua  and  his  army  found  in 
Palestine,  a  thousand  years  before  the  time  of  Han- 
nibal. Those  people  were  of  the  same  race  as  the 
Carthaginians,  who  in  fact  emigrated  from  Tyre  — 
some  people  think  because  the  Israelites  pressed 


56  boys'  heroes. 

them  in  Southern  Syria  —  and  tliey  sought  new 
homes  when  they  were  crowded  out.  When  Virgil 
calls  Dido  "  Elissa,"  we  ought  to  remember  it  was 
the  same  name  as  "  Jezebel "  who  was  Dido's  rela- 
tive, and  could  have  understood  her  if  they  could 
have  met.  Now  the  Canaanites  could  not  hold  on. 
They  could  not  stand  against  the  persistent  pres- 
sure of  the  Israelites  though  their  armor  were  as 
good,  their  tactics  as  good  and  though  they  fought 
for  their  homes. 

The  w.eakness  of  Carthaginians  and  Canaanites 
is  here.  Such  worship  as  they  had  —  it  would  be  a 
shame  to  call  it  religion  —  is  a  worship  of  things 
that  they  see.  Instead  of  what  we  call  morals,  in- 
stead of  right  and  wrong,  their  rulers,  teachers, 
priests  are  seeking  personal  physical  enjoyment. 
Nobody  cares  for  the  word  "ought"  or  for  the 
reality  it  expresses.  Each  man  cares  for  what  pleases 
his  taste,  his  eye,  his  ear,  or  some  of  his  senses. 
This  is  what  is  meant  when  it  is  said  they  worship 
Belial,  and  Moloch  and  Thammuz,  while  it  is  said 
that  the  conquering  Hebrews  worship  an  unknown 
God  who  has  no  name  but  "  I  AM." 


HANNIBAL.  57 

Now  the  Romans  were  not  people  who  made  a 
great  deal  of  the  external  observances  of  worship, 
though  they  did  not  neglect  them.  But  they  did 
make  a  great  deal  of  the  word  "  Right,"  and  of  the 
idea  in  the  word  "  Ought."  When  Regulus  went 
back  to  Carthage  to  die,  because  he  had  said  he 
would,  he  showed  the  Carthaginians  something 
which  they  did  not  understand  or  comprehend.  A 
Carthaginian  would  have  lied  under  these  circum- 
stances. The  Carthaginian  would  have  elected  pres- 
ent comfort.  The  Roman  had  an  idea  of  eternal 
truth.  The  Roman  therefore  in  the  days  of  the 
Republic  could  endure  to  the  end. 

Hannibal  was  the  son  of  Hamilcar  Barca,  a  Car- 
thaginian chief  who  hated  the  Romans,  and  led  the 
Carthaginian  party  which  insisted  on  war  with  them. 
Hannibal  was  born  in  the  very  year  when  his  father 
was  appointed  to  the  Carthaginian  forces  in  Sicily. 
He  did  not  succeed  there,  and  the  Carthaginians 
lost  Sicily.  Hamilcar  went  to  Spain  afterwards  as 
the  Carthaginian  commander  there.  He  took  the 
boy  Hannibal  with  him,  though  he  was  but  nine 
years  old.     And  it  was  then  that  he  made  him 


58  boys'  heroes. 

swear  eternal  hatred  to  the  Romans  at  the  aUar  in 
Carthage.  Hannibal  never  forgot  this.  He  told 
the  story  of  it  to  Antiochus,  not  long  before  his  own 
death.     Here  is  his  own  account  of  it : 

When  I  was  a  little  boy  not  more  than  nine  years  old,  my 
father  offered  sacrifices  to  Jupiter  the  Best  and  Greatest,  on 
his  departure  from  Carthage  as  general  in  Spain.  While  he 
was  conducting  the  sacrifice,  he  asked  me  if  I  would  like  to 
go  to  the  camp  with  him.  I  said  I  would  gladly,  and  began 
to  beg  him  not  to  hesitate  to  take  me.  He  replied,  "  I  will 
do  it  if  you  will  make  the  promise  I  demand."  He  took  me 
at  once  to  the  altar,  at  which  he  had  offered  his  sacrifice,  he 
bade  me  take  hold  of  it,  having  sent  the  others  away,  and 
bade  me  swear  that  I  would  never  be  in  friendship  with  the 
Romans. 

To  this  boy's  vow  he  was  always  true.  He  could 
not  have  had  a  better  school  for  war  than  was 
Spain,  nor  a  better  teacher  than  his  father.  The 
Carthaginians  were  establishing  their  colonies  in 
the  southern  part  of  Spain,  the  Romans  were 
strengthening  their  allies  in  the  northern  part.  The 
river  Ebro,  which  they  called  Iberus,  had  been 
agreed  upon  as  a  dividing  line  between  the  two  em- 


HANNIBAL.  59 

pires.  The  Spanish  tribes  were  by  no  means  easy 
under  their  foreign  rulers,  and  were  constantly  re- 
belling. Hannibal  loved  the  open  air,  and  he  loved 
war.  He  was  indifferent  to  personal  luxury.  He 
did  not  sleep  because  it  was  night,  but  because  his 
work  was  done.  He  did  not  rise  from  bed  because 
it  was  morning,  but  because  he  had  something  to 
do.  So  they  say  he  was  indifferent  to  day  or  night. 
His  dress  was  always  simple,  but  his  arms  and  his 
horses  were  always  of  the  best.  When  he  was  so 
young  as  to  be  under  command,  he  was  always  a 
favorite  with  his  superiors,  and  then  and  afterwards 
he  was  always  a  favorite  with  his  army.  It  seems 
to  have  been  taken  for  granted  from  the  beginning 
that  he  was  to  be  a  great  commander.  He  com- 
manded the  Carthaginian  cavalry  when  he  was 
eighteen  years  old,  and  took  command  of  the  whole 
army  on  his  father's  death,  when  he  was  hardly 
twenty-five  or  twenty-six.  When  he  took  his  army 
across  the  Alps,  he  was  hardly  older  than  Napoleon 
was  when  he  did  the  same  thing  twenty  centuries 
after. 

So  soon  as  he  had  an  army  at  his  command  he 


6o  boys'  heroes. 

pounced  on  Saguntum,  a  cily  in  alliance  with  the 
Romans.  Saguntum  had  been  founded  by  Greek 
colonists  who  came  from  Zacynthus,  from  which  it 
derives  its  name.  There  is  a  Spanish  village  at  the 
place  now  called  Murviedro,  which  word  is  the  re- 
mainder of  the  Latin  words  Muri  vekres,  "  the  old 
walls."  After  a  most  obstinate  defence,  Saguntum 
was  totally  destroyed  and  Hannibal  immediately 
proceeded  to  march  against  Rome. 

He  propitiated  the  tribes  in  Gaul  who  did  not 
like  the  Romans  any  too  well.  He  crossed  the 
Rhone  with  his  army  in  face  of  the  advance  guard 
of  the  Romans.  It  is  a  great  military  problem  how 
to  cross  a  great  river  in  face  of  an  enemy,  and  any 
boy  will  be  interested  in  seeing  how  Hannibal 
brought  his  large  army  forward,  especially  his  forty 
elephants.  Keeping  well  inland  so  as  to  avoid  the 
Roman  army  near  the  coast,  he  approached  the 
Alps  which  he  was  determined  to  cross  before  win- 
ter. His  success  in  bringing  his  army  over,  though 
with  loss,  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  great  achieve- 
ments in  war. 

Livy's  account  of  it  is  picturesque.  But  I  —  who 


HANNIBAL.  6l 

sometimes  believe  that  I  have  been  over  the  same 
pass,  at  the  same  season  of  the  year,  namely  Octo- 
ber —  think  Livy  made  his  account  rather  froi^i 
some  hard  experiences  of  his  own  in  the  mountains, 
than  from  any  chronicles  v^^hich  had  lasted  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years.  It  is  in  this  story  that  the 
famous  account  comes  in  of  their  cutting  through 
the  rocks  by  heating  them  and  pouring  on  vinegar. 

The  soldiers  being  then  set  to  make  a  way  down  the  cliff, 
by  which  alone  a  passage  could  be  effected,  and  it  being  nec- 
essary that  they  should  cut  through  the  rocks,  having  felled, 
and  lopped,  a  great  number  of  large  trees  which  grew  around, 
they  made  a  huge  pile  of  timber;  and  as  soon  as  a  strong 
wind  fit  for  exciting  the  flames  arose,  they  set  fire  to  it,  and, 
pouring  vinegar  on  the  heated  stones,  they  render  them  soft 
and  crumbling.  They  then  open  a  way  with  iron  instruments 
through  the  rock  thus  heated  by  the  fire,  and  soften  its  de- 
clivities by  gentle  windings,  so  that  not  only  the  beasts  of 
burden,  but  also  the  elephants,  could  be  led  down  it. 

Now  if  you  ask  me  what  I  think  about  this,  I 
should  say  that  Hannibal  was  a  much  better  en- 
gineer than  Livy.  He  undoubtedly  had  with  his 
army  the  best  engineers  of  the  time  who  knew  the 


62  boys'  heroes. 

best  processes  of  the  time  for  quarrying  and  re- 
ducing rock.  Given  the  problem  which  was  to  im- 
prove the  mountain  trail,  so  that  an  army  of  seventy 
thousand  men  might  descend  from  the  summit  in 
four  days,  they  undoubtedly  did  things  that  very 
much  surprised  the  natives.  Among  those  things 
such  enterprises  as  this  of  heating  and  cracking 
rock  would  have  been  most  likely  to  be  remem- 
bered by  tradition.  And,  if  the  use  of  vinegar  or 
any  other  acids  came  into  the  quarrying  of  that 
time,  the  mountaineers  would  very  naturally  have 
remembered  it. 

But  I  should  not  advise  any  member  of  the  Ap- 
palachian Club  who  wanted  to  improve  the  pass 
through  Carter's  Notch,  which  in  my  judgment 
needs  improvement,  to  rely  on  a  bottle  of  vinegar. 

By  the  time  the  army  was  in  the  plains  of  Lom- 
bardy,  it  was  much  reduced.  Hannibal  had  started 
from  Saguntum  with  a  good  force,  but  he  had  sent 
back  many,  some  I  suppose  had  deserted  in  Gaul, 
and  in  the  passes  of  the  Alps  he  had  lost  great 
numbers.  What  he  had,  however,  were  picked  men, 
and  in  the  spring,  refreshed  by  their  winter  in  the 


HANNIBAL.  63 

country,  they  met  Flaminius  with  his  army  of  Ro- 
mans. The  Carthaginians  were  hardened  and 
trained  by  their  winter's  experience.  The  Romans, 
though  they  had  been  worsted  at  Trebia  and  the  Po, 
were  confident  with  true  Roman  conceit.  But  they 
had  been  recruited  at  a  time,  when,  according  to 
Livy,  the  Romans  were  more  sunk  in  sloth  and  unfit 
for  war  than  ever.  Flaminius  himself  was  head- 
strong and  rash,  and  Hannibal  fooled  him  to  his 
ruin.  When  you  go  to  Italy,  you  will  not  find  it  hard 
to  see  the  "  reedy  lake  of  Thrasymene  "  where  the 
Roman  army  was  ruined  and  Flaminius  killed.  You 
can  see  it  from  the  railway  as  you  ride  from  Flor- 
ence to  Rome.    Here  is  Lord  Byron's  description  : 

I  roam 
By  Thrasimene's  lake,  in  the  defiles 
Fatal  to  Roman  rashness,  more  at  home  ; 
For  there  the  Carthaginian's  warlike  wiles 
Come  back  before  me,  as  his  skill  beguiles 
The  host  between  the  mountains  and  the  shore, 
Where  Courage  falls  in  her  despairing  files, 
And  torrents,  swollen  to  rivers  with  their  gore, 
Reek  through  the  sultry  plain,  with  legions  scattered  o'er. 


64  boys'  heroes. 

Far  other  scene  is  Thrasimene  now; 
Her  lake  a  sheet  of  silver,  and  her  plain 
Rent  by  no  ravage  save  the  gentle  plough  ; 
Her  aged  trees  rise  thick  as  once  the  slain 
Lay  where  their  roots  are ;  but  a  brook  hath  ta'en  — 
A  little  rill  of  scanty  stream  and  bed  — 
A  name  of  blood  from  that  day's  sanguine  rain ; 
And  Sanguinetto  tells  you  where  the  dead 
Made  the  earth  wet,  and  turn'd  the  unwilling  waters  red. 

The  Roman  people  were  like  all  nations  who 
have  not  had  recent  experience  of  war  at  home, 
and  when  they  saw  their  legions  march  out  well-ap- 
pointed, they  had  been  quite  sure  of  victory.  Of  a 
sudden  one  straggler  returning,  announced  what 
they  could  not  bear  to  believe,  that  their  consul  was 
dead  and  their  army  routed.  It  was  then  and  thus 
that  this  city  of  Rome  began  to  feel  the  pressure  of 
that  long  war  which  lasted  sixteen  years,  while 
Hannibal  ravaged  one  part  of  Italy  and  another. 
It  was  the  beginning  of  the  training  which  was  to 
cure  Rome,  for  the  moment,  of  her  luxury  and  to 
lift  her,  for  the  time,  from  her  degeneracy. 

You   have    heard   it    said   that   the    luxuries  of 


HANNIBAL.  65 

Capua,  the  chief  city  of  Campania,  were  really  what 
defeated  Hannibal.  It  has  become  a  proverbial  ex- 
pression to  say  of  any  luxury  which  destroys  a  suc- 
cessful man,  that  it  is  his  "  Capua."  But  I  think 
the  best  opinion  of  the  best  military  men  relieves 
Hannibal  from  the  charge  implied  in  this  sneer.  It 
is  very  easy  for  you  and  me,  sitting  at  our  ease  here 
two  thousand  and  one  hundred  years  after  all  this 
happened,  to  say  that,  after  routing  the  Roman 
army  at  Thrasymene,  he  should  have  marched  di- 
rectly on  Rome  and  destroyed  it.  But  he  certainly 
knew  his  business  better  than  we  do.  He  passed 
by  Rome  into  Campania,  and  made  his  headquar- 
ters for  a  time  at  Capua.  For  the  next  fifteen  years 
and  more  he  did  very  much  what  he  chose  in  Italy, 
often  advancing  to  the  very  walls  of  Rome,  but 
never  strong  enough  to  storm  a  city  where  by  this 
time  every  man  was  a  soldier,  nor  to  blockade  it  so 
as  to  starve  it  into  submission.  In  this  time  he 
partially  regained  the  command  of  Sicily,  which  the 
Carthaginians  had  lost  after  the  first  Punic  War. 
He  was  cruelly  disappointed  and  the  fate  of  the 
world  was  changed  when  Claudius  Nero,  the  Roman 


66  boys'  heroes. 

commander  in  the  north  of  Italy,  defeated  Hasdru- 
bal,  Hannibal's  brother,  who  was  bringing  him  re- 
inforcements. Nero  sent  Hasdrubal's  head  into 
Hannibal's  camp,  and  when  he  saw  it,  he  sighed 
and  said,  "  I  see  the  fate  of  Carthage." 

The  end  came  when  Cornelius  Scipio  built  a 
Roman  fleet,  carried  an  army  across  to  Africa  and 
threatened  Carthage  itself.  It  is  from  this  bold 
enterprise  that  we  take  our  proverb,  '*  He  carried 
the  war  into  Africa."  The  Carthaginian  senate 
could  not  endure  to  the  end.  They  began  sending 
for  Hannibal,  who  at  first  would  not  come.  At 
last  he  came  and  the  great  battle  of  Zama  followed, 
one  of  the  critical  battles  of  the  history  of  the 
world.  Whatever  advantage  the  Carthaginians  had 
was  in  their  cavalry.  Their  force  of  infantry  was 
inferior  to  that  of  the  Romans.  But  the  Romans 
had  for  allies  the  Numidians,  people  who  lived  in 
the  country  which  we  now  call  Morocco.  It  is  one 
of  the  most  productive  countries  in  the  world.  If 
it  had  a  decent  government,  it  would  be  the  gran- 
ary of  Europe  to-day.  Now  the  Numidian  horse 
and  their  force  of  elephants  were  more  than  a  match 


HANNIBAL.  67 

for  those  of  the  Carthaginians.  The  battle  began 
by  a  conflict  in  which  the  Numidians  swept  the  Car- 
thaginian cavalry  out  of  the  field.  The  Roman  in- 
fantry then  pressed  on  the  Carthaginian  infantry. 
They  stood  the  attack  at  first,  but  when  the  Nu- 
midian  cavalry  returned  and  joined  in  the  attack, 
the  Carthaginian  army  gave  way  — and  Hannibal's 
career  of  victory  was  ended. 

He  told  the  Carthaginian  senate  that  all  was 
lost,  and  they  made  such  terms  as  Romans  would 
grant  to  the  conquered.  Poor  Hannibal  could  not 
long  remain  in  Carthage.  He  was  one  of  the  chief 
magistrates  there  for  a  year  or  two.  But  one  party 
there  hated  him  worse  than  the  Romans  hated  him. 
He,  however,  addressed  the  people  of  Carthage  and 
taught  them  that  it  was  necessary.  He  said  in  his 
first  address  to  them,  "  having  left  you  when  nine 
years  old  I  have  returned  after  an  absence  of  thirty- 
six  years."  He  had  never  been  in  his  own  country 
since  he  was  a  child. 

He  knew  that  the  Romans  would  wish  to  make 
him  a  prisoner.  He  sailed  at  once  to  Syria,  where 
he  entrusted  himself  to  Antiochus  the  Third,  one  of 


68  boys'  heroes. 

the  successors,  after  nearly  a  century,  of  Alexander 
the  Great.  He  served  Antiochus  faithfully  till  the 
Romans  so  pressed  him  that  he  was  forced  to  give 
up  his  guest  and  Hannibal  retired  to  Bithynia. 
Here  again  the  Romans  followed  him  up.  They 
could  not  be  at  ease  while  he  lived,  and  Flaminius 
was  sent  to  Prusias,  King  of  Bithynia,  to  demand 
his  surrender.  Prusias  was  mean  enough  to  send 
troops  for  his  arrest.  When  Hannibal  found  his 
escape  was  cut  off,  he  took  poison  and  died. 


KING   ARTHUR. 

THE  missionary  Augustine,  who  went  from 
Rome  to  Britain  to  convert  the  Saxons  to 
Christianity,  landed  in  Kent  in  the  year  596.  From 
that  visit  of  his,  with  forty  companions,  the  present 
organization  of  the  English  church  is  derived. 

But  there  were  Christians  in  Britain  before  Au- 
gustine. Christianity  had  been  introduced  there 
in  the  Roman  Army,  and  so  long  as  the  Roman 
posts  were  maintained  there,  there  were  Christian 
churches.  The  native  Britons  had  embraced  some 
form  of  Christianity.  The  Saxons,  who  began  to 
invade  them  as  soon  as  the  Roman  garrisons  were 
withdrawn,  had  no  Christian  faith  or  institutions. 
It  is  of  the  conversion  of  these  Saxon  intruders 
that  we  speak,  when  we  say  that  x^ugustine  and  his 

companions  converted  England  to  Christianity. 

69 


7©  .  boys'  heroes. 

For  more  than  a  hundred  years  before  Augustine 
came,  there  had  been  a  series  of  incursions  by 
the  Saxons,  and  of  battles  between  them  and  the 
Britons  whom  they  found  there.  The  Romans, 
with  their  garrisons,  had  kept  the  peace.  But, 
nearly  two  centuries  before  Augustine's  time,  the 
Romans  had  been  so  hard  pressed  by  the  warlike 
tribes  who  invaded  them,  that  they  had  been 
obliged  to  withdraw  their  garrisons.  In  those  two 
centuries  the  British  tribes  began  to  quarrel  with 
each  other.  Much  such  a  result  followed  as  would 
follow  in  the  East  Indies  now,  if  the  English  army 
was  withdrawn.  In  the  midst  of  these  disturbances 
among  themselves,  the  Saxons  and  Angles,  from 
the  north  of  Germany,  found  out  that  Britain  was 
a  good  place  to  live  in,  and  began  their  invasions. 
They  were  the  neighbors  of  the  Lombards  or  Long- 
beards,  who  at  about  the  same  time  marched  south 
into  Italy,  whose  general  was  Garibald,  a  name 
which  has  re-appeared  in  another  Lombard  general 
of  later  time. 

In  these  two  centuries  of  civil  wars,  and  war 
against  invaders  with  very  little  written  history,  you 


KING  Arthur's  round  table. 


KING    ARTHUR.  71 

may  be  sure,  and  very  little  civilization,  there 
was  just  the  chance  for  the  growth  of  legends. 
"  What  your  grandfather  told,"  and  "  what  your 
grandmother  remembered,"  could  grow  in  that 
soil,  as  mushroom  spores  will  grow  if  you  give 
them  the  soil  they  love.  So  that  on  the  very 
ground  where  yesterday  you  heard  no  story  at  all, 
you  might  to-morrow  hear  of  Jack  the  Giant  Killer, 
of  Tom  Thumb,  of  Ja.ck  and  the  Bean  Stalk,  of 
the  Rye  Pudding,  of  the  four  and  twenty  black 
birds,  and  if  you  were  a  little  older,  of  Lancelot,  of 
Gawain,  of  Elaine,  of  the  Round  Table  and  the 
Hundred  Knights  thereof. 

When,  in  a  historical  mood,  you  look  back  in  the 
chronicles,  to  see  what  all  this  started  from,  you 
do  not  find  great  comfort.  Here  is  the  confession 
of  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  who  wrote  six  hundred 
years  after  the  time  he  says  Arthur  died. 

"  Whilst  occupied  on  many  and  various  studies, 
I  happened  to  light  upon  the  history  of  the  kings 
of  Britain,  and  wondered  that  in  the  account  which 
Gildas  and  Bede,  in  their  elegant  treatises  had 
given  of  them,  I  found  nothing  said  of  those  kings 


72  BOYS     HEROES. 

who  lived  here  before  the  Incarnation  of  Christ, 
nor  of  Arthur,  and  many  others  who  succeeded 
after  the  Incarnation  ;  though  their  actions  both 
deserved  immortal  fame,  and  were  also  celebrated 
by  many  people  in  a  pleasant  manner  and  by  heart, 
as  if  they  had  been  written.  Whilst  I  was  intent 
upon  these  and  such  like  thoughts,  Walter,  arch- 
deacon of  Oxford,  a  man  of  great  eloquence,  and 
learned  in  foreign  histories,  offered  me  a  very  an- 
cient book  in  the  British  tongue,  which,  in  a  con- 
tinued regular  story  and  elegant  style,  related  the 
actions  of  them  all,  from  Brutus  the  first  king  of 
the  Britons,  down  to  Cadawallader  the  son  of  Cad- 
wallo.  At  his  request  therefore,  though  I  had  not 
made  fine  language  my  study,  by  collecting  expres- 
sions from  other  authors,  yet  contented  with  my 
own  homely  style,  I  undertook  the  translation  of 
that  book  into  Latin." 

You  see  that  this  excellent  Geoffrey  was  sur- 
prised that  in  the  two  best  histories  of  England 
which  he  knew,  the  great  King  Arthur's  name  was 
not  so  much  as  mentioned.  This  is  probably  due 
to  the  fact  that  he  belonged  in  romance  and  not 


KING   ARTHUR.  73 

in  history.  The  truth  is,  that  there  were,  in  those 
ages,  many  kings  and  many  lords.  Where  the 
Saxons  landed,  and  made  a  raid,  the  Britons  gath- 
ered and  opposed  them.  But  gradually  the  Sax- 
ons made  head  against  them,  and  established  their 
permanent  colonies,  exactly  as,  later  down,  their 
descendants  established  Massachusetts,  and  Prov- 
idence Plantations,  and  Maryland  and  Virginia  in 
America.  In  after  years,  more  or  less  was  remem- 
bered of  the  British  chieftains,  and  on  this  more 
or  less,  all  the  romance  writers,  when  the  time  for 
romances  came,  hung  their  stories. 

The  "Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,"  one  of  the  old 
collections  of  annals,  supplies  in  simple  form  the 
most  important  facts  for  the  years  in  which  Arthur 
lived,  if  he  lived  at  all.  You  ought  to  read  it,  to 
see  what  history  is  made  from. 

Anno.  508.  This  year  Cerdic  and  Cynric  slew  a  British 
king,  whose  name  was  Natan-leod,  and  five  thousand  men 
with  him.  After  that  the  country  was  named  Natan-lea,  as 
far  as  Cerdicsford  [Charford]. 

A.  509.  This  year  St.  Benedict,  the  abbot,  father  of  all 
monks,  went  to  heaven. 


74  BOYS     HEROES. 

A.  514.  This  year  the  West  Saxons  came  to  Britain  with 
three  ships,  at  the  jilace  which  is  called  Cerdic's-ore,  and 
Stuf  and  Whitgar  fought  against  the  Britons  and  put  them 
to  flight. 

A.  515-S18. 

A.  519.  This  year  Cerdic  and  Cynric  obtained  the  king- 
dom of  the  West  Saxons ;  and  the  same  year  they  fought 
against  the  Britons  where  it  is  now  named  Cerdicsford. 
And  from  that  time  the  royal  offspring  of  the  West  Saxon 
reigned. 

A.  520-526. 

A.  527.  This  year  Cerdic  and  Cynric  fought  against  the 
Britons  at  the  place  which  is  called  Cerdic's-lea. 

A.     528-529. 

A.  530.  This  year  Cerdic  and  Cynric  conquered  the 
island  of  Wight,  and  slew  many  men  at  Whit-garas-byig. 
[Carisbrooke,  in  Wight.] 

531-533- 

A.  534.     This  year  Cerdic,  the  first   king   of   the  W^est 

Saxons,  died,  and  Cynric  his  son  succeeded  to  the  kingdom, 

and  reigned  from  that  time  twenty-six  years  ;  and  they  gave 

the  whole  island  of  Wight  to  their  two  nephews  Stuf  and 

Whitgar. 

535-537- 

A.  53S.  This  year,  fourteen  days  before  the  Kalends  of 


KING   ARTHUR. 


75 


March,  the  sun  was  eclipsed  from  early  morning  till  nine  in 
the  forenoon. 

A.  539- 

A.  540.  This  year  the  sun  was  eclipsed  on  the  twelfth  be- 
fore the  Kalends  of  July,  and  the  stars  showed  themselves 
full-nigh  half  an  hour  after  nine  in  the  forenoon. 

Now,  remember  that,  according  to  Geoffrey  of 
Monmouth,  Arthur  died  in  542.  Observe  that  in 
the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  there  is  not  one  word 
about  him  in  thirty-four  years  before  that  time. 
Then  you  will  understand  that  he  could  not  have 
been  the  single  king  of  all  England  which  the  ro- 
mances describe. 

Dr.  Lingard  says  of  him  :  "We  know  neither  the 
period  when  he  lived  nor  the  district  over  which  he 
reigned.  He  is  said  to  have  fought  and  to  have 
gained  twelve  battles.  In  most  of  these,  from  the 
names  of  the  places,  he  seems  to  have  been  opposed 
to  the  Angles  in  Lincolnshire,  from  the  last,  at  Mt. 
Badon,  to  the  Saxons  under  Cerdic  or  Cynric. 
This,  whether  it  was  fought  under  Arthur  or  not, 
was  a  splendid  and  useful  victory,  which  for  forty 
years  checked  the  advance  of  the  strangers.     Per- 


76  boys'  heroes. 

haps  when  the  reader  has  been  told  that  Arthur 
was  a  British  chieftain,  that  he  fought  many  battles, 
that  he  was  murdered  by  his  nephew,  and  vas 
buried  in  Glastonbury,  where  his  remains  were  dis- 
covered in  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Second,  he  will 
have  learned  all  that  can  be  ascertained  at  the  pre- 
sent day.,  respecting  that  celebrated  warrior." 

It  is  a  good  deal  as  you  might  read  a  good  his- 
tory of  the  United  States  for  the  first  half  of  this 
century,  and  possibly  not  find  the  name  of  Te- 
cumseh ;  or  as  you  might  read  one  of  the  last  half 
of  the  century  which  should  not  mention  Sitting 
Bull.  But  if,  a  hundred  years  hence,  you  went 
among  a  spirited  tribe  of  Indians,  who  had  ad- 
vanced a  century  toward  civilization,  you  might 
find  enthusiastic  accounts  of  Sitting  Bull  and  of 
Tecumseh  preserved  in  ballads  and  stories.  And 
these  accounts,  very  likely,  would  surpass  anything 
which  was  true  in  the  real  lives  of  those  chiefs. 

I  may  say,  in  passing,  that  both  Tecumseh  and 
Sitting  Bull  were  men  quite  as  accomplished  as 
the  real  King  Arthur  was.  As  for  weapons  and 
arts,  they  were  quite  in  advance  of  him. 


THE   SWORD    EXCALIBAK. 


KING   ARTHUR.  77 

What  King  Arthur  means,  then,  to  you  and  me, 
is  this.  He  is  the  Hero  of  Chivalry,  as  Chivalry 
conceived  of  a  Hero,  when  Chivalry  was  at  its  best. 
Sidney  Lanier's  edition  of  Sir  Thomas  Malory's 
History  of  King  Arthur  and  his  Knights  of  the 
Round  Table  is  a  book  all  boys  will  like  to 
read,  and  it  will  be  an  excellent  introduction  to 
the  Romances  of  Chivalry.  If  you  ask  my  advice, 
you  will  read  that  first.  Then  you  can  read  the 
Welsh  traditions  of  King  Arthur  which  this  same 
Sidney  Lanier  edited,  under  the  title  of  the  Boy's 
Mabinogion.  Here  is  a  good  piece  from  Sir 
Thomas  Malory : 

"  Now  assay,"  said  Sir  Ector  to  Sir  Kay.  And  anon  he 
pulled  at  the  sword  with  all  his  might  but  it  would  not  be. 
"  Now  shall  we  assay  ? "  said  Sir  Ector  to  Arthur. 

'*  I  will  well,"  said  Arthur,  and  pulled  it  out  easily.  And 
therewithal  Sir  Ector  kneeled  down  to  the  earth,  and  Sir 
Kay. 

"  Alas,"  said  Arthur,  "  mine  own  dear  father  and  brother, 
why  kneel  ye  to  me  ?  " 

"Nay,  nay,  my  lord  Arthur,  it  is  not  so  :  I  was  never  your 
father  nor  of  your  blood,  but  I  wote  [know]  well  ye  are  of  an 
higher  blood  than  I  weened  yAou^^/it]  ye  were."     And  then 


78  boys'  heroes. 

Sir  Ector  told  him  all.  Then  Arthur  made  a  great  moan 
when  he  understood  that  Sir  Ector  was  not  his  father. 

"Sir,"  said  Ector  unto  Arthur,  "will  ye  be  my  good  and 
gracious  lord  when  ye  are  king  ? " 

"Else  were  I  to  blame,"  said  Arthur,  "for  ye  are  the  man 
in  the  world  that  I  am  most  beholding  [obliged]  to,  and  my 
good  lady  and  mother  your  wife,  that  as  well  as  her  own 
hath  fostered  and  kept  me.  And  if  ever  it  be  God's  will 
that  I  be  king,  as  ye  say,  ye  shall  desire  of  me  what  I  may 
do,  and  I  shall  not  fail  you." 

"  Sir,"  said  Sir  Ector,  "  I  will  ask  no  more  of  you  but  that 
you  will  make  my  son,  your  fostered  brother,  Sir  Kay,  sene- 
schal of  all  your  lands." 

"  That  shall  be  done,  sir,"  said  Arthur,  "  and  more  by  the 
faith  of  my  body;  and  never  man  shall  have  that  office  but 
he  while  that  he  and  I  live." 

Both  Lord  Tennyson  and  Mr.  Bulwer  in  our 
time  have  felt  that  in  this  legend  of  Arthur  was 
the  best  subject  for  a  great  English  poem.  Lord 
Lytton  said  once,  that  he  had  more  hope  of  being 
remembered  in  another  century,  because  he  had 
written  King  Arthur,  than  for  any  fame  which  any 
of  his  novels  would  have  then.  But  you  will  find 
it  hard  to  buy  a  copy  to-day,  and  there  are  good 
public  libraries  which    do  not  contain   "  Bulwer's 


KING    ARTHUR.  79 

King  Arthur."  I  am  afraid  that  in  truth  Bulwer 
had  "to  pump."  That  is  a  phrase  Mr.  Emerson 
once  used  to  me  when  he  was  speaking  of  another 
poet.  The  story  is  difficult  to  follow,  it  is  long- 
winded,  it  is  not  founded  on  the  real  legends. 

Still  there  are  noble  passages  in  it.  Here  is 
Arthur's  prayer  when  Merlin  has  revealed  to  him 
that 

to  the  Saxon's  sway 
Thy  kingdom  and  thy  crown  shall  pass  away. 

Arthur  cries 

O  thou,  the  Almighty  lord  of  earth  and  heaven 
Without  whose  will  not  e'en  a  sparrow  falls, 
If  to  my  sight  the  fearful  truth  were  given, 
If  thy  dread  hand  hath  graven  on  these  walls 
The  Assyrian's  doom,  and  to  the  strangers'  sway 
My  kingdom  and  my  crown  shall  pass  away, 

Grant  this  —  a  freeman's,  if  a  monarch's  prayer  !  — 

Life,  while  my  life  one  man  from  chains  can  save ; 
While  earth  one  refuge,  or  the  cave  one  lair. 
Yields  to  the  closing  struggle  of  the  brave  !  — 
Mine  the  last  desperate  but  avenging  hand, 
If  reft  the  sceptre,  not  resigned  the  brand ! 


8o  boys'  heroes. 

But,  as  every  boy  knows,  who  will  read  these 
lines,  the  tenderness,  the  vigor,  the  simplicity  and 
the  truth  of  Lord  Tennyson's  Idyls  have  made 
men  and  women  forget  all  the  other  poetry  about 
King  Arthur.  The  Idyls  have  been  published  at 
various  times,  and  are  not  published  in  the  chron- 
ological order  of  their  own  story.  But  in  the 
later  editions  you  will  find  in  what  order  the 
author  means  that  they  shall  be  read. 

"  It  is  all  good,"  —  as said  of ,  —  no 

matter  for  that  story  now.  It  will  do  another  time. 
We  will  take  almost  at  haphazard  the  true  account 
of  Arthur's  origin. 

To  whom  the  novice  garrulously  again  : 
"  Yea,  one,  a  bard  ;  of  whom  my  father  said, 
Full  many  a  noble  war-song  had  he  sung, 
Ev'n  in  the  presence  of  an  enemy's  fleet, 
Between  the  steep  cliff  and  the  coming  wave; 
And  many  a  mystic  lay  of  life  and  death 
Had  chanted  on  the  smoky  mountain-tops. 
When  round  him  bent  the  spirits  of  the  hills 
With  all  their  dewy  hair  blown  back  like  flame  : 
So  said  my  father  —  and  that  night  the  bard 
Sang  Arthur's  glorious  wars,  and  sang  the  King 


KING   ARTHUR.  8 

As  well  nigh  more  than  man,  and  railed  at  those 

Who  called  him  the  false  son  of  Gorlois : 

For  there  was  no  man  knew  from  whence  he  came  ; 

But  after  tempest,  when  the  long  wave  broke 

All  down  the  thundering  shores  of  Bude  and  Bos, 

There  came  a  day  as  still  as  heaven,  and  then 

They  found  a  naked  child  upon  the  sands 

Of  dark  Dundagil  by  the  Cornish  sea  : 

And  that  was  Arthur ;  and  they  foster'd  him 

Till  he  by  miracle  was  approven  king  : 

And  that  his  grave  should  be  a  mystery 

From  all  men,  like  his  birth  :  and  could  he  find 

A  woman  in  her  womanhood  as  great 

As  he  was  in  his  niaiihood,  then,  he  sang, 

The  twain  together  well  might  change  the  world." 


xd. 


^?^t>^ 


VI. 


RICHARD  THE    LION    HEARTED. 

I  SUPPOSE  that  the  romances  about  King  Arthur 
were  first  written  after  knight-errantry  had 
died  out.  I  think  people  remembered  the  theory  of 
Chivalry  in  that  form  —  and  that  the  detail  of  it, 
as  it  appeared  in  fact  —  v/as  rather  blurred  by  time. 
But  now  that  we  come,  in  our  list  of  heroes,  to 
Richard  the  Lion  Hearted,  we  come  into  the  do- 
main of  real  history.  I  think  v/e  may  say  that  this 
was  at  the  very  prime  of  the  time  of  tournaments 
and  all  the  rest  of  those  brilliant  shows  which  make 
the  ages  of  real  chivalry  so  interesting.  I  think 
that  the  reason  that  boys  of  our  time  and  country 
are  so  much  interested  in  Richard  is  that  he  is  so 
well  described  in  Tvanhoe  and  in  the  Talisman. 
v>  Then  we  are  all  interested  in  the  Crusades.  I  think 

we  all  feel  that  the  crusade  of  Richard  ought  to 

82 


RICHARD    THE    LION    HEARTED.  83 

have  succeeded,  and  would  have  succeeded,  had  it 
been  led  by  one  man,  and  not  by  a  mass-meeting 
or  caucus  —  which  is  to  say,  not  led  at  all. 

For  my  own  part,  I  should  like  to  say  that  I  do 
not  myself  think  that  the  time  for  Crusades  is  over. 
Mr.  Gladstone  is  said  to  have  said  once,  that  he 
would  like  to  see  the  Sultan  sent  beyond  the  Bos- 
phorus,  "bag  and  baggage."  The  solution  of  the 
Oriental  question,  which  thus  disposes  of  the  Turk- 
ish government,  is  called  familiarly  the  "bag  and 
baggage  "  policy.  I  think  that  if  I  had  the  man- 
agement of  affairs  for  a  few  months,  I  would  take 
the  Sultan  and  settle  him  in  a  nice  valley  of  Asia 
Minor  with  five  hundred  sheep,  and  a  brand-new 
shepherd's  crook.  I  would  tell  him  that  he  was  in  a 
better  condition  than  his  ancestors  were,  and  that 
he  might  now  look  out  for  himself.  I  would  give 
similar  crooks  to  the  principal  officers  of  his  court, 
and  let  each  of  them  have  one  hundred  sheep,  and 
a  smaller  valley.  Then  I  would  provide  a  decent 
government  for  Constantinople  and  the  Ottoman 
Empire. 

In  the  Crusade  of  the  year  1190  and  1191,  Rich- 


84  boys'  heroes. 

arc!  and  the  Western  princes  had  in  mind  a  policy 
not  unlike  this.  Under  the  inspiration  of  Peter  the 
Hermit,  the  first  Crusade  had  driven  the  Turkish 
hordes  out  from  Jerusalem,  in  the  year  1099.  1 
was  always  much  obliged  to  them  for  selecting  a 
date  which  is  so  easy  to  remember.  These  vagabonds 
had  only  been  there  thirty-four  years.  They  were 
genuine  savages,  as  ignorant  of  the  Koran  as  they 
were  of  the  Bible.  They  had  no  more  rights  there 
than  a  gang  of  Apache  Indians  would  have  in 
Washington  to-day,  if  in  the  reign  of  Frank  Pierce 
they  had  found  their  way  into  Washington  and  had 
ruled  in  riot  there  ever  since.  Before  their  time, 
for  four  hundred  years,  the  country  had  been  under 
Mussulman  sway,  but  it  was  the  sway  of  Arabians, 
or  Egyptians,  who  had  about  as  much  civilization 
as  anybody  in  their  times.  These  vagabond  Turks 
had  none  ;  nor  have  their  successors  had  more  than 
a  varnish  of  any  up  to  this  hour. 

The  first  Crusaders  drove  them  out  of  Jerusalem, 
"bag  and  baggage,"  as  Mr.  Gladstone  says.  They 
established  in  their  place  Godfrey  of  Boulogne,  as 
king  of  Jerusalem,  and  there  he  and  his  successors 


RICHARD    THE    LION    HEARTED.  85 

reigned  for  nearly  a  hundred  years.  A  queer  time 
they  had  of  it,  and  a  hard  one.  For  if  there  was 
anything  which  they  did  not  understand,  it  was 
dealing  with  such  people  as  they  had  to  do  with 
there. 

\  At  the  end  of  nearly  a  hundred  years,  there  was 
a  very  accomplished  Mussulman  prince  named  Sal- 
adin,  who  had  succeeded  in  possessing  himself  of 
Egypt.  He  is  the  Saladin  whom  you  read  of  in  T/ie 
Talisman.  He  made  it  his  business  to  sweep  out 
the  Crusaders  "  bag  and  baggage  "  in  his  turn,  x^nd 
in  a  terrible  battle  which  he  fought  on  the  fourth  of 
July,  II 87,  he  destroyed  the  army  of  the  king  of  Jeru- 
salem, and  took  him  prisoner.  He  killed  the  bishop 
who  bore  the  Holy  Cross  or  what  they  thought  so. 
And  many  of  the  Christian  soldiers  thought  that 
this  terrible  defeat  was  due  to  the  treachery  of  that 
same  Grand  Master  of  the  Templars,  of  whom  you 
read  in  Ivanhoe. 

This  critical  battle  of  Tiberias,  which  established 
for  seven  hundred  years  Moslem  power  in  the  holy 
land,  ended  in  a  conflict  on  that  level  plain,  in  the 
Mount  of  the   Beatitudes  —  where  the   Saviour  is 


86  boys'  heroes. 

supposed  to  have  pronounced  the  blessing  on  the 
Peacemakers.  Strange  to  say  it  is  the  crater  of  an 
extinct  volcano. 

The  stragglers  from  the  Christian  kingdom  of 
Jerusalem  came  back  to  Europe.  To  redeem  the 
city  again,  the  third  Crusade  was  set  on  foot  with 
the  support,  more  or  less  cordial,  of  all  the  great 
Western  princes.  In  this  Crusade  our  King  Rich- 
ard was  the  first  king  to  engage  publicly. 

Here  is  the  account  of  his  departure,  given  by 
Richard  of  Devizes : 

The  time  of  commencing  his  journey  pressed  hard  upon 
King  Richard,  as  he,  who  had  been  first  of  all  the  princes  on 
this  side  the  Alps  in  taking  up  the  cross,  was  unwilling  to  be 
last  in  setting  out.  A  king  worthy  of  the  name  of  king,  who, 
in  the  first  year  of  his  reign,  left  the  kingdom  of  England  for 
Christ,  scarcely  otherwise  than  if  he  had  departed  never  to 
return.  So  great  was  the  devotion  of  the  man,  so  hastily, 
so  quickly,  and  so  speedily  did  he  run,  yea  fly,  to  avenge  the 
wrongs  of  Christ. 

He  went  through  France  to  Marseilles  and  sailed 
from  that  port  towards  Syria.  The  French  king 
took  his  army  by  land,  because  he  was  apt  to  be  sea- 


RICHARD    THE    LION    HEARTED.  87 

sick.  Although  Richard  started  from  England  as 
early  as  the  twelfth  of  December,  1 189,  he  did  not 
arrive  at  Palestine  until  the  day  before  Whit-Sunday, 
1 191,  having  been  more  than  a  year  on  the  way. 
This  long  delay  was  really  due  to  the  customs  of 
chivalry.  /For  the  king  could  not  resist  the  tempta- 
tion of  taking  a  personal  part  in  every  encounter 
which  turned  up ;  and  indeed,  through  the  whole  ex- 
pedition, he  bore  himself  more  as  a  knight-errant 
seeking  for  glory,  than  as  the  far-seeing  leader  of  a 
great  movement.  Thus  he  stopped  on  the  way  to  set- 
tle a  claim  he  had  on  the  king  of  Sicily  for  the  dowry 
of  Richard's  sister.  Among  other  things,  he  found 
time  to  be  married  with  great  pomp  to  Berengaria, 
Princess  of  Navarre,  one  of  the  few  ladies  who  ac- 
companied the  expedition.  I  think  the  marriage 
had  been  agreed  upon  before  they  started^  He  had  a 
little  war  with  some  banditti,  whom  the  chroniclers 
call  Griffones,  in  Sicily,  and  seems  to  have  beaten 
them  thoroughly.  He  took  possession  of  the  island 
of  Cyprus,  after  some  hard  fighting.  Under  his 
successor  in  the  rule  of  England,  Mr.  Benjamin 
DTsraeli,  Cyprus    has  fallen  under  English    rule 


88  boys'  heroes. 

again.  Even  after  he  had  left  Cyprus  he  fell  in 
with  a  large  Saracen  ship,  and  instead  of  keeping 
on  toward  Palestine  he  boldly  attacked  her. 

Though  our  galleymen  rowed  repeatedly  round  the  ship,  to 
scrutinize  the  vessel,  they  could  find  no  point  of  attack ;  it 
appeared  so  solid  and  so  compact,  and  of  such  strong  materi- 
als, and  it  was  defended  by  a  guard  of  warriors  who  kept 
throwing  darts  at  them.  Our  men,  therefore,  relished  not 
the  darts,  nor  the  great  height  of  the  ship,  for  it  was  enough 
to  strive  against  a  foe  on  equal  ground,  whereas  a  dart  thrown 
from  above  always  tells  upon  those  below,  since  its  iron 
point  falls  downward. 

Hence  their  ardor  relaxed,  but  the  spirit  of  the  king  in- 
creased, and  he  exclaimed  aloud,  "  Will  you  allow  the  ship 
to  get  away  untouched  and  uninjured.''  Shame  upon  you! 
are  you  grown  cowards  from  sloth,  after  so  many  triumphs  ? 
The  whole  world  knows  you  are  engaged  in  the  service  of 
the  Cross,  and  you  will  have  to  undergo  the  severest  punish- 
ment, if  you  permit  an  enemy  to  escape  while  he  lives,  and  is 
thrown  in  your  way." 

Our  men,  therefore,  making  a  virtue  of  necessity,  plunged 
eagerly  into  the  water  under  the  ship's  side,  and  bound  the 
rudder  with  ropes  to  turn  and  retard  its  progress,  and  some, 
taking  hold  of  the  cables,  leapt  on  board  the  ship.  The 
Turks  receiving  them  manfully,  cut  them  to  pieces  as  they 


RICHARD    THE    LION    HEARTED.  89 

came  on  board,  and  lopping  off  the  head  of  this  one,  and  the 
hands  of  that,  and  the  arms  of  another,  cast  their  bodies  into 
the  sea.    *  *  * 

But  they,  after  a  mighty  struggle,  drove  the  Turks  back 
as  far  as  the  prow  of  the  ship,  while  from  the  interior  others 
rushed  upon  our  men  in  a  body,  preparing  to  die  bravely  or 
repel  the  foe.  They  were  the  choice  youth  of  the  Turks, 
fitted  for  war,  and  suitably  armed.  The  battle  lasted  a  long 
time,  and  many  fell  on  both  sides ;  but  at  last,  the  Turks, 
pressing  boldly  on  our  men,  drove  them  back,  though  they 
resisted  with  all  their  might,  and  forced  them  from  the 
ship.     *  *  *  * 

The  king  seeing  the  dangers  his  men  were  in,  and  that, 
while  the  ship  was  uninjured,  it  would  not  be  easy  to  take 
the  Turks  with  the  arms  and  provisions  therein,  commanded 
that  each  of  the  galleys  should  attack  the  ship  with  its  spur 
—  i.  e.  the  iron  beak.  Then  the  galleys,  drawing  back, 
were  borne  by  rapid  strokes  of  the  oar  against  the  ship's 
sides,  to  pierce  them  —  and  thus  the  vessel  was  instantly 
broken,  and  becoming  pervious  to  the  waves,  began  to  sink. 
When  the  Turks  saw  it,  they  leaped  into  the  sea  to  die,  and 
our  men  killed  some  of  them  and  drowned  the  rest.  The 
king  kept  thirty-five  alive,  namely  the  admiral  and  men  who 
were  skilled  in  making  machines.  But  the  rest  perished,  the 
arms  were  abandoned  and  the  serpents  sunk  and  scattered 
about  by  the  waves  of  the  sea.     If  that  ship  had  arrived 


9©  boys'  heroes. 

safely  at  the  harbor  of  Acre,  the  Christians  would  never  have 
taken  the  city.  But  by  the  care  of  God,  it  was  converted 
into  the  destruction  of  the  infidel,  and  the  aid  of  the  Chris- 
tians, who  hoped  in  him,  by  means  of  King  Richard,  who  by 
his  help,  prospered  in  war. 

To  give  poor  Richard  his  due,  he  had  terrible 
malarial  attacks  all  through  this  expedition.  The 
King  of  France  was  as  unfortunate,  and  finally  suc- 
cumbed to  them.  Richard  scarcely  landed  at 
Acre,  where  the  Crusaders  were  besieging  the 
Saracens,  before  he  fell  sick.  This  is  the  period 
which  readers  of  The  Talisman  will  remember. 
The  besieging  army  was  itself  closely  watched  and 
almost  besieged  by  Saladin,  on  the  hills  behind  the 
town.  The  princes  who  had  arrived  before  Rich- 
ard, were  very  indignant  at  his  long  delay  on  the 
route,  and  certainly  they  had  some  reason.  But, 
when  he  and  his  men  were  landed,  the  attack  on 
the  city  took  more  life.  Though  sick  himself,  he 
joined  in  it,  while  he  directed  it.  Special  feats  of 
his  are  recorded  by  the  chroniclers.  At  last,  "  on 
the  Fridav  after  the  translation  of  St.  Benedict," 
the  Turks  gave  hostages  for  the   delivery  of  the 


RICHARD    THE    LION    HEARTED.  91 

Holy  Cross,  and  of  their  captives,  and  marched 
out  of  the  city.  The  King  of  France  and  the  King 
of  England  entered  it,  "and  divided  everything 
equally  between  them." 

After  such  a  success,  Saladin  may  well  have  con- 
sidered his  cause  well  nigh  lost ;  and  after  he  lost 
the  battle  of  Jaffa,  he  might,  even  with  honor,  have 
given  it  up.  But  the  weakness  of  the  whole  Cru- 
sade was  in  the  division  of  its  chiefs.  The  King 
of  France  was  dissatisfied  and  went  home,  leaving, 
however,  ten  thousand  men  to  fight  in  Palestine. 

The  battle  of  Jaffa,  so  called,  is  a  better  illus- 
tration than  you  are  apt  to  find  in  history  of  the 
hard  hand-to-hand  fighting.  It  is  described,  even 
to  tediousness  in  the  romances,  but  not  very  fre- 
quent in  real  warfare.  Here  is  a  specimen  of 
Vinsauf 's  bloody  narrative  : 

The  commander  of  the  Turks  was  an  admiral,  by  name 
Tekedmus,  a  kinsman  of  the  sultan.  He  was  a  most  cruel 
persecutor,  and  a  persevering  enemy  of  the  Christians.  He 
had  under  his  command  seven  hundred  chosen  Turks  of 
great  valor,  of  the  household  troops  of  Saladin,  each  of 
whose  companies  bore  a  yellow  banner  with  pennons  of  a 


9^  BOYS     HEROES. 

different  color.  These  men,  coming  at  full  charge,  attacked 
our  men  who  were  turning  off  from  them  towards  the  stand- 
ard, cutting  at  them,  and  piercing  them  severely,  so  that 
even  the  firmness  of  our  chiefs  wavered  under  the  weight  of 
the  pressure.  Yet  our  men  remained  immovable,  compelled 
to  repel  force  by  force,  and  the  conflict  grew  thicker,  the 
blows  were  redoubled,  and  the  battle  raged  fiercer  than  be- 
fore. The  one  side  labored  to  crush,  and  the  other  to  repel. 
Both  exerted  their  strength,  and  although  our  men  were  by 
far  the  fewest  in  numbers,  they  made  havoc  of  great  mul- 
titudes of  the  enemy.  In  truth  the  Turks  were  furious  in 
the  assault  and  greatly  distressed  our  men,whose  blood  poured 
forth  in  a  stream  beneath  their  blows.  On  perceiving  them 
to  reel  and  give  way,  William  de  Barris,  a  renowned  knight, 
breaking  through  the  ranks,  charged  the  Turks  with  his  men, 
and  such  was  the  vigor  of  the  onset  that  some  fell  by  the 
edge  of  the  sword,  and  others  only  saved  themselves  by  rapid 
flight.  The  King  mounted  on  a  bay  Cyprian  steed,  which 
had  not  its  match,  bounded  forward  in  the  direction  of  the 
mountains,  and  scattered  those  he  met  on  all  sides :  for  the 
enemy  fled  from  his  sword  and  gave  way,  while  helmets  tot- 
tered beneath  it,  and  sparks  flew  forth  from  its  strokes. 

And  so  on,  and  so  on,  for  page  after  page.  Any 
one  but  Richard  would  have  had  his  fill  of  fighting 
in  these  fifteen  months.     He  defeated  Saladin  in 


RICHARD    THE    LION    HEARTED.  93 

battle  again  and  again.  But  he  did  not  capture 
Jerusalem.  Fever  after  fever  prostrated  his  strength 
and  at  last  he  consented  to  a  truce.  Saladin  in- 
sisted on  the  destruction  of  the  fortifications  of 
Ascalon.  But  he  gave  to  the  pilgrims  free  access 
to  Jerusalem.  This  was,  in  fact,  all  that  they  asked 
before  the  Crusades  began. 

Poor  Richard,  you  know,  was  taken  prisoner  on 
his  way  home,  and  his  rapsom  was  a  heavy  one. 
Nor  did  things  fare  well  with  him  in  England. 
Fighting  to  the  last,  he  was  killed  in  his  forty-sec- 
ond year. 

For  many  and  many  a  year  the  Christian  powers, 
who  represent  the  States  which  united  in  the  Cru- 
sades, have  had  the  beggar  Sultan  in  their  keeping. 
He  is  the  "  sick  man,"  whom  they  condescend  to 
keep  alive.  He  is  the  nominal  lord  of  Jerusalem 
now.  But  he  could  not  hold  it  an  hour,  if  England 
and  Germany  and  France  and  Austria  and  Russia 
did  not  prefer  that  he  should. 

Possibly  his  star  may  pale  some  day.  At  the 
end  of  some  Egyptian  war,  some  Garnet  Wolseley 


94  BOYS     HEROES. 

will  be  bidden  to  march  two  days  inland  from 
Joppa  and  take  possession  of  Jerusalem.  What 
Richard  and  Philip  and  Henry  and  the  rest  fought 
for,  for  years,  would  be  done,  then,  in  forty-eight 
hours,  by  three  or  four  English  regiments.  In 
some  such  way  it  may  be  that  some  of  our  young 
readers  will  see 

THE   LAST  CRUSADE. 


VII. 


BAYARD. 


T 


HE  Chevalier  Bayard  —  without  fear  and  with 
out  reproach  —  is  on  our  list  of  heroes. 


His  life  was  worth  writing  and  has  been  well 
written.  He  is  most  happy  in  the  description 
which  always  accompanies  his  name,  which  I  have 
translated.  Many  a  person  knows  him  as  the 
Chevalier  sans  peur  et  sans  reproche  —  who  does 
not  know  where  he  lived,  where  he  fought,  or  to 
what  century  he  belonged. 

He  was  the  son  of  a  loyal  soldier  who  had  lost 
his  arm  in  battle.  His  education  was  conducted 
at  Grenoble,  under  the  eyes  of  his  uncle,  the 
bishop  of  that  place  —  the  brother  of  Bayard's 
mother.  How  many  boys  who  read  this  would  be 
well  pleased  were  their  education  as  simple  ?  "  It 
was  completed,"  says  his  biographer,"  when  he  was 

95 


96  boys'  heroes. 

twelve  years  old,  for  he  had  then  learned  to  read 
and  to  sign  his  name,  and  this  was  learning  enough 
for  a  gentleman  of  those  days."  I  am  sojry  to  add 
that  some  of  them,  whose  writing  I  have  seen, 
signed  their  names  very  badly. 

When  he  was  only  thirteen,  he  was  presented  to 
Charles,  Duke  of  Savoy  —  the  ancestor  of  the 
present  King  of  Italy.  The  king  was  pleased 
with  the  boy,  and  made  him  one  of  his  pages.  He 
was  in  company  with  the  duke  at  the  city  of  Lyons 
once  when  they  met  the  King  of  F'rance,  Charles 
the  Eighth.  The  king  liked  him  also,  and  asked 
the  duke  to  give  him  to  him,  somewhat  as  you 
must  ask  for  a  fine  dog  or  a  parrot.  The  Duke  of 
Savoy  did  so,  and  thus  the  young  fellow  entered 
into  the  service  of  one  of  the  first  princes  of  his 
time.  That  is,  he  was  at  the  court  of  Charles, 
while  his  daily  employments  were  those  of  a  page 
of  the  Count  of  Ligny  —  Louis  of  Luxembourg  who 
was  a  favorite  of  the  king. 

When  he  was  only  sixteen  years  old  a  Lyonese 
gentleman  gave  a  great  tournament  in  honor  of 
the  king.     The  page.  Bayard,  was  determined  to 


BAYARD.  97 

be  there,  but  he  had  no  horse,  no  arms,  and  no 
money  to  buy  them.  A  friend  of  his,  named 
Bellabre,  advised  him  to  go  to  his  uncle  —  and  I 
am  not  sure  but  that  here  is  the  origin  of  that 
slang  phrase  in  which  a  person  in  need,  who  bor- 
rows money,  is  said  "to  go  to  his  uncle."  The 
uncle  was  goodnatured,  and  sent  the  two  young 
friends  to  his  own  "furnisher,"  with  a  note  that 
he  should  do  for  them  whatever  they  asked.  The 
boys  did  not  spare.  They  spent  four  hundred 
crowns  each,  which  was  thought  an  enormous  sum. 
But  the  uncle  was  reconciled,  when  it  proved  that 
the  money  was  well  spent.  For  the  Sire  de  Vau- 
drey  himself,  who  had  arranged  the  tournament, 
was  overcome  by  the  unknown  young  adventurer, 
and  then  when,  according  to  the  custom,  with  his 
visor  lifted  at  last.  Bayard  passed  before  the  ladies 
who  looked  on,  they  were  all  surprised  to  see 
that  such  great  success  had  been  won  by  Piquet. 
"  Piquet "  was  the  nickname  the  king  had  given 
him,  as  if  one  should  call  him  "  Spur."  The  king 
was  the  only  person  the  young  fellows  had  en- 
trusted with  their  secret.     He  had  not  had  a  mo- 


98  boys'  heroes. 

ment's  fear  for  his  favorite  "  Piquet."  He  said, 
"  God  grant  to  you  what  I  see  beginning ;  you  shall 
be  Prud-honime,"  by  which  he  meant,  "you  shall 
be  recognized  as  a  leader  of  men,"  a  prophecy 
which  was  fulfilled. 

The  times  were  the  times  for  personal  daring." 
Gunpowder  had  not  wholly  put  plate  armor  and 
the  customs  of  chivalry  out  of  the  way,  but  the  end 
of  them  had  all  but  come. 

I  am  not  sure  but  Dumas  took  the  idea  of  his 
Three  Musketeers  from  the  inseparable  alliance 
between  Bayard,  his  friend  Bellabre,  and  the  cap- 
tain of  their  company,  whose  name  was  Louis  d' Ars. 
In  1493,  they  all  crossed  the  Alps  together  with 
King  Charles,  who  had  undertaken  the  conquest 
of  Naples.  Bayard  was  twenty  years  old  ;  and 
thus  began  the  career  of  fighting,  which  he  followed 
till  he  died  at  the  age  of  forty-eight,  with  only  very 
short  interruptions  of  the  days  of  peace.  Like 
other  soldiers,  of  that  country  and  that  time,  he 
had  various  fortunes.  But  in  all  adventure  he 
showed  the  unflinching  courage  which  has  given 
him  his  fame ;  and  the  stories  told  of  him  are  ex- 


bayard's  armor. 


BAYARD-  lOI 

actly  like  those  told  in  the  romances  of  Arthur 
and  of  Amadis. 

While  the  French  were  masters  of  most  of 
Southern  Italy,  Bayard  was  made  Governor  of  the 
city  of  Minervino.  He  was  always  in  the  saddle, 
as  if  seeking  for  adventure,  and  one  day  captured 
a  convoy  of  the  Spanish  enemy,  and  secured  fifteen 
thousand  ducats.  A  Gascon  officer  claimed  half 
the  prize,  as  having  assisted  in  the  capture  ;  but 
the  court  which  heard  the  case  refused  to  ac- 
knowledge the  claim.  The  man  grumbled  about 
this,  and  said  if  he  had  had  the  money  it  would 
have  enabled  him  to  lead  an  honorable  life  for  the 
rest  of  his  days.  "  Is  that  all  you  need  for  valour 
and  honour  ? "  said  Bayard,  and  exhibited  the 
tempting  ducats.  "  They  are  nice  lozenges  to 
work  such  a  cure,  are  they  not  ?  I  see  you  want 
to  eat  them,  and  you  shall."  So  he  gave  the  dis- 
contented officer  half  the  money  and  distributed 
the  rest  among  the  soldiers. 

But  the  end  of  the  French  occupation  of  Southern 
Italy  had  come.  The  invasion  which  had  begun 
as  a  gay  promenade,  ended  after  many  years  of 


I02  BOYS     HEROES. 

success  in  a  painful  and  lal^orious  retreat.     In  this 
Bayard  was  the  soul  of  the  army. 

It  was  at  the  battle  of  Garigliano  that  he  re- 
peated the  achievement  of  Horatius.  He  and  a 
gentleman  named  Basco,  were  riding  a  little  sepa- 
rated from  the  army.  Suddenly  they  saw  a  body 
of  Spaniards  who  were  approaching  the  bridge  over 
the  Garigliano,  which  they  meant  to  hold  against 
the  French  army.  Basco  rushed  to  warn  the 
French.  Bayard  remained  and  held  the  bridge 
alone.  The  four  first  knights  who  met  him  "  bit  the 
dust."  The  Spanish  leader  rushed  forward,  sword 
in  hand,  and  fell  dead.  "  Like  a  tiger  set  free,  Bay- 
ard held  the  bridge  against  them  all,  so  that  his  ene- 
mies thought  that  here  was  some  devil,  whom  they 
could  not  believe  to  be  a  man."  He  held  it  till  the 
French  arrived  in  force  enough  to  drive  the  Span- 
iards back,  and  thus  saved  the  army.  For  this 
gallant  deed  he  was  permitted  to  add  the  figure  of 
a  porcupine  to  his  armorial  bearings  with  the  motto. 
Vires  agminis  wins  habet.  "  Alone  he  has  the 
power  of  a  host."  The  Pope  Julius,  after  this, 
offered  to  make  him  his  general-in-chief. 


THE   YOUNG    BAYARU    ON    HORSEBACK. 


BAYARD.  103 

"  I  shall  never  have  but  two  masters,"  said 
Bayard,  "on  earth  the  king  of  France,  and  my 
God  in  Heaven."  And  he  returned  with  the  army 
into  France. 

In  1 5 1  o  Bayard  was  sent  by  the  King  of  France 
to  assist  the  Duke  of  Ferrara,  some  of  whose  do- 
minions were  claimed  by  the  pope.  The  duke  con- 
fided to  him  a  plan  for  poisoning  the  pope,  but 
Bayard  was  enraged,  and  told  him  he  would  him- 
self inform  the  pope,  if  he  did  not  renounce  so  base 
a  scheme.  In  the  siege  of  Brescia  he  was  wounded ; 
and  after  that  city  fell,  he  was  carried  on  a  litter  to 
a  house  where  a  lady  had  been  deserted  by  her  hus- 
band, and  was  left  alone  with  her  two  daughters. 
Bayard  placed  two  soldiers  at  the  door  with  orders 
vo  protect  the  house  from  all  molestation,  and  gave 
to  each  of  the  men  five  hundred  crowns,  as  his  rec- 
ompense for  losing  a  share  in  the  plunder  of  the 
city.  When  he  was  partly  healed  and  was  about  to 
leave,  the  lady  whom  he  had  so  served,  fell  on  her 
knees  before  him  and  begged  him  to  accept  a  pres- 
ent in  token  of  her  gratitude.  Bayard  smiled  and 
asked  how  much  the  casket  held  which  she  pressed 


I04  BOYS     HEROES. 

Upon  him.  The  poor  woman,  abashed,  said,  "  Two 
thousand  five  hundred  golden  ducats,  sir,  but  if  this 
be  not  a  large  enough  present,  we  will  try  to  make  it 
more."  "  No,  madame,  "  said  the  knight,  "  I  do  not 
wish  any  money.  You  have  rendered  me  service 
far  beyond  what  I  could  render  you.  I  ask  for  your 
friendship  and  I  hope  you  will  accept  mine  in  re- 
turn." She  was  surprised  by  his  courtesy,  threw 
herself  at  his  feet  again,  and  said  she  would  not  rise 
until  he  accepted  her  present.  "  If  you  wish  I  will 
do  so,"  said  Bayard,  "  but  am  I  not  to  have  the 
pleasure  of  bidding  your  daughters  farewell?" 
When  the  girls  came,  he  thanked  them  for  their 
care  of  him,  and  said,  "  I  would  gladly  give  you  some 
token  of  it.  But  soldiers  have  not  often  jewels  to 
give  away.  Your  mother  has  made  me  a  present  of 
twenty-five  hundred  ducats.  I  beg  each  of  you 
to  accept  one  thousand  for  a  dowr}'',  and  I  hope  you 
will  be  my  almoner  in  dividing  the  rest  among  the 
convents  which  have  been  pillaged." 

Gaston  de  Foix  is  said  to  have  lost  his  life  at  the 
battle  of  Ravenna,  by  rejecting  Bayard's  advice. 
In  15 13,  when  Henry  the  Eighth  of  England  routed 


BAYARD.  105 

the  French  in  the  battle  of  Therouenne,  which  took 
the  name  of  the  "Battle  of  the  Spurs"  from  their 
rapid  flight,  Bayard  was  taken  prisoner.     He  was 
covering  the  retreat,  at  a  bridge  with  a  few  com- 
panions, and  when  he  had  secured  this  object,  he 
told  his  friends  that  they  must  surrender.    For  him- 
self, finding  an  English  officer  lying  under  a  tree,  a 
little  way  from  the  battle,  he  spurred  up  to  him, 
pointed  his  sword,  and  said  "  Surrender,  Sir  Knight, 
or  you  die."     The  officer  surrendered.     But  Bayard 
then  said,  "  I  am  Captain  Bayard,  and  I  now  surren- 
der to  you.     Here  is  my  sword."     When  a  few 
days  after,  there  was  talk  of  ransom.  Bayard  claimed 
that  the  English  officer  owed  him  a  ransom  first. 
The  question  was  referred  to  the  Emperor  and  to 
Henry,  who  were  glad  to  meet  a  soldier  so  distin- 
guished as  Bayard,  and  they  recognized  Bayard's 
claim,  and  decided  that  the  two  ransoms  should 
offset  each  other. 

Francis  the  First  soon  after  became  King  of 
France ;  he  made  Bayard  lieutenant-general  of 
Dauphiny.  Francis  made  another  effort  to  re-con- 
quer Northern  Italy,  and  Bayard  accompanied  him 


io6  boys'  heroes. 

in  the  campaign.  The  battle  of  Marignan  tested 
the  young  king  and  his  companions  in  arms.  When 
it  was  happily  ended,  King  Francis  asked  Bayard 
10  confer  on  him  the  honor  of  knighthood,  a  pro- 
cedure, not  without  precedent,  but  quite  reversing 
the  ordinary  custom.     Bayard  at  first  refused. 

"  Sir,"  he  said, "  he  who  has  been  crowned  and  anointed  with 
the  oil  sent  from  Heaven  and  is  king  of  a  reahn,  so  noble, 
the  first  son  of  the  church,  is  already  a  knight  above  all 
other  knights."  The  King  replied,  "Bayard,  be  quick." 
Then  Bayard  took  his  sword  and  replied,  "  Sir,  it  would 
avail  as  much  as  if  it  were  Roland  or  Oliver,  Godfrey  or  his 
brother  Baudoin.  Certes,  you  are  the  first  king,  whom 
knight  ever  knighted  —  God  grant  you  may  never  take  flight 
in  war."  Then  looking  playfully  upon  his  sword,  he  said, 
"  Thou  art  right  happy  to  have  given  the  order  of  chivalry  to- 
day to  so  noble  and  powerful  a  king.  Certes,  my  good  sword,  I 
will  keep  thee  as  a  relic,  guarded  above  all  others,  and  I  will 
never  use  thee  except  against  Turks,  Saracens  or  Moors." 
Then  he  made  two  passes  with  it  and  put  it  back  into  the 
sheath. 

Bayard  seems,  however,  in  the  course  of  every- 
day affairs  to  have  been  no  courtier.  He  served 
his  king  in  the  saddle  and  in  fight;   but  other  men 


BAYARD.  107 

flattered  him  in  court,  amused  him  and  took  the 
honors.  The  historians  agree  that  Francis  lost  his 
cause  against  Charles  the  Fifth,  his  great  enemy, 
because  he  entrusted  his  armies  to  incompetent 
generals.  It  was  thus  that  after  remarkable  suc- 
cesses in  Italy  he  lost  all  but  honor,  as  he  said  to  his 
mother,  in  the  fatal  battle  of  Pavia  in  the  year  1525. 

But  he  had  lost  Bayard  the  year  before.  Had 
he  not  lost  Bayard  he  might  not  have  lost  the  day 
at  Pavia. 

In  the  campaigns  by  which  Francis  attempted 
once  more  to  secure  Lombardy  for  France,  Bayard 
served  his  king  most  loyally,  and,  where  he  was, 
France  succeeded.  But  the  king  had  intrusted 
his  affairs  to  his  favorite  Bonnivet,  an  incompetent 
soldier.  Bayard  and  his  troops  were  driven  out  of 
Genoa,  and  when  Bonnivet  finally  had  to  retreat 
into  France,  Bayard  had  to  play  again  the  same 
part  he  played  in  his  youth,  when  the  King  of 
France  did  the  same  thing,  and  cover  the  rear. 

As  the  army  wound  along  the  Vaf  d'Aosfa,  the 
Spaniards  attacked  them  ;  Bonnivet  was  wounded. 
Bayard  again  took  command  of  the  rear  to  save 


io8  boys'  heroes. 

the  army  if  it  could  be  saved.  He  put  himself  at 
the  head  of  the  men  at  arms,  and,  animating  them 
by  his  presence  and  example,  to  sustain  the  whole 
shock  of  the  enemy's  troops,  he  gained  time  for 
the  rest  of  his  countrymen  to  make  good  their 
retreat.  But  in  this  service  he  received  a  wound 
which  he  immediately  perceived  to  be  mortal,  and 
being  unable  to  continue  any  longer  on  horseback, 
he  ordered  one  of  his  attendants  to  place  him  under 
a  tree,  with  his  face  towards  the  enemy ;  then 
fixing  his  eyes  on  the  guard  of  his  sword,  which 
he  held  up  instead  of  a  cross,  he  addressed  his 
prayers  to  God,  and  in  this  posture,  which  became 
his  character  both  as  a  soldier  and  as  a  Christian, 
he  calmly  waited  the  approach  of  death.  The  Con- 
stable of  Bourbon,  who  led  the  foremost  of  the 
enemy's  troops,  found  him  in  this  situation,  and  ex- 
pressed regret  and  pity  at  the  sight. 

"  Pity  not  me,"  cried  the  high-spirited  chevalier. 
"  I  die  as  a  man  of  honor  ought,  in  the  discharge  of 
my  duty;  they  indeed  are  objects  of  pity  who  fight 
against  their  king,  their  country  and  their  oath." 
He  meant  the  Constable,  who  understood  him. 


BAYARD.  109 

The  Marquis  de  Pescara,  passing  soon  after, 
manifested  his  admiration  of  Bayard's  virtues,  as 
well  as  his  sorrow  for  his  fate,  with  the  generosity 
of  a  gallant  enemy ;  and  finding  that  he  could  not 
be  removed  with  safety  from  that  spot,  ordered  a 
tent  to  be  pitched  there,  and  appointed  proper 
persons  to  attend  him.  He  died,  notwithstanding 
their  care,  as  his  ancestors  had  done,  on  the  field 
of  battle.  Pescara  ordered  his  body  to  be  em- 
balmed, and  sent  to  his  relations ;  and  such  was 
the  respect  paid  to  military  merit  in  that  age,  that 
the  Duke  of  Savoy  commanded  it  to  be  received 
with  royal  honors  in  all  the  cities  of  his  dominions ; 
in  Dauphiny,  Bayard's  native  country,  the  people 
of  all  ranks  came  out  in  a  solemn  procession  to 
meet  it. 

Bayard  died  April  30,  1524.  Francis  lost  Pavia 
and  Italy  in  February  of  the  next  year. 

And  now  why  is  it  that  Bayard  is  on  our  list  of 
heroes  ? 

Mostly,  I  think,  because  rare  good  fortune  at- 
tached to  him  the  title  "  chei^alier  sanspeur  et  sans  re- 
proc/ie,^^  "  the  knight  without  reproach  and  without 


no  BOYS     HEROES. 

fear."  Many  a  knight  has  deserved  such  an  honor. 
Bayard  had  the  honor  given  him  in  such  phrase  that 
men  remembered  it.  Thousands  of  young  Amer- 
icans have  deserved  it  better  than  he  did.  I  do 
not  think  it  is  this  particular  man  whom  one  chooses 
to  honor  or  to  love.  But  one  does  love  this  quality 
of  courage,  if  it  be  not  merely  the  courage  of  an 
unimaginative  brute.  Courage,  if  it  be  stainless 
courage,  makes  the  true  hero. 


viir. 


ROBINSON   CRUSOE. 


TN  our  list  of  heroes,  I  have  included  one  name 
-■-  of  one  person  who  was  never  born,  and  never 
died,  and  never  lived  with  a  real  physical  body  in 
this  world.  But  strange  to  say,  this  name  is  much 
dearer  to  most  of  the  readers  of  this  book  than 
is  any  other  upon  our  list.  And  the  man  to  whom 
it  belongs  is  much  better  known  than  are  any  of 
our  other  heroes. 

And  his  name,  it  is  "  ROBINSON  CRUSOE." 
There  are  so  many  editions  of  the  life  of  Rob- 
inson Crusoe  now  published,  that  the  best  informed 
authority  on  books  would  not  even  pretend  to  tell 
you  what  they  all  were,  or  how  many.  It  is  a  book 
for  which  the  demand  is  perfectly  steady,  and  any 
good  edition  of  it  may  be  printed  with  almost  a 
certainty  that  the  stereotyped  plates  may  be  worn 


III 


I  12  BOYS     HEROES. 

out  in  printing  copies  which  will  be  sold.  It  is  a 
book  which  is  quoted  among  all  English-speaking 
people  with  the  certainty  that  the  quotation  will  be 
understood.  Thus,  an  allusion  to  the  "man  Fri- 
day," or  to  the  footprint  of  the  savage  in  the  sand 
would  be  made  quite  as  surely  as  an  allusion  to 
any  familiar  passage  in  history,  or  even  in  the 
Bible. 

Any  people  of  our  race  would  understand  this 
if  they  had  ever  read  anything  at  all.  Even  in 
such  a  short  list  of  books  as  that  of  those  which 
Abraham  Lincoln  read  when  he  was  a  boy,  you 
are  almost  sure  to  find  Robinson  Crusoe.  Indeed, 
its  literary  merit  is  such,  quite  apart  from  the  hu- 
man interest  which  belongs  to  almost  every  page, 
that  it  would  appear  among  the  first  books  of  Eng- 
lish fiction,  if  not  as  the  very  first.  Of  all  the  stories 
ever  written  originally  in  the  English  language,  I 
suppose  that  Robinsoii  Crusoe^  the  Pilgrwi^s  Progress 
and  Uncle  Toin^s  Cabin  have  been  the  most  widely 
read. 

Daniel  De  Foe,  the  author,  says  himself  that  the 
whole  btory  is  an  allegory  with  a  religious  purpose. 


ROBINSON    CRUSOE.  113 

He  says  that  it  might  disclose  the  rehgious  experi- 
ences of  a  man  known  to  him,  and  that  it  was  writ- 
ten for  that  purpose.  Indeed,  he  wrote  and  pub- 
lished a  third  part,  devoted  wholly  to  a  Religious 
Vision  of  Robinson  Crusoe.  A  curious  book  that  is 
indeed.  There  is  in  it  a  picture  of  Crusoe  outside 
the  world  —  as  if  he  were  walking  along  the  world's 
orbit  and  had  been  left  by  it.  In  the  background 
you  see  the  earth  and  the  moon,  and  I  think,  the 
sun.  But  I  speak  from  memor}'  only.  The  book 
is  rare  and  I  have  not  seen  it  for  many  years. 

Whatever  may  have  been  De  Foe's  intention,  no 
one  has,  in  fact,  ever  unravelled  the  allegory  of  the 
book.  It  is  taken  as  a  piece  of  the  purest  narra- 
tive in  the  English  language,  and  so,  in  the  main, 
I  will  speak  of  it  here. 

To  tell  Robinson  Crusoe's  life  in  brief,  then,  as 
I  did  Bayard's  in  the  preceding  chapter,  he  was 
born  in  the  city  of  York,  in  England,  September 
30,  1632,  of  good  family,  he  says.  His  father  had 
been  a  German  from  Bremen,  who  had  settled  at 
the  English  seaport  of  Hull.  So  "  poor  old  Rob- 
inson Crusoe  "  might  have  a  place  in  the  Walhalla. 


114  I^O'^S     HEROES. 

The  Walhalla  is  a  splendid  temple  near  Ratisbon, 
in  which  the  king  of  Bavaria  places  busts  or  stat- 
ues of  the  men  and  women  of  German  race  who 
have  served  the  world.  Among  others  are  William 
the  Third  of  England,  and  the  great  Katherine  of 
Russia.  Here  he  ought  to  put  Robinson  Kreut- 
zander,  otherwise  Crusoe.  For  certainly  he  has 
done  the  world  quite  as  good  a  turn  as  ever  Kath- 
erine did. 

Robinson  was  the  third  son  of  his  father.  He 
had  a  rambling  turn  and  would  be  satisfied  with 
nothing  but  going  to  sea  —  and  in  fact  when  he 
was  but  nineteen  years  old,  on  September  i,  165 1, 
he  ran  away  from  home  and  took  passage  on  a 
ship  for  London  with  a  young  friend  who  was  go- 
ing in  his  father's  ship  from  Hull  to  London. 
There  is  not,  in  all  the  story  of  Robinson  Crusoe, 
the  slightest  reference  to  the  great  English  politi- 
cal struggles  of  the  time.  But  it  is  worth  while  to 
notice  that  the  first  of  September,  1651,  was  two 
days  before  the  great  battle  of  Worcester,  in  which 
Cromwell  finally  beat  the  Royalists  and  Charles 
the  Second  fled  for  his  life.     Robinson's  first  storm 


ROBINSON    CRUSOE. 


"5 


was,  apparently,  on  the  day  Charles  was  beaten. 
Three  days  after,  Robinson  is  shipwrecked  at  Yar- 
mouth. This  is  while  Charles  is  escaping  from 
England.  The  storm  in  which  Robinson's  ship 
was  lost  appears  elsewhere  in  real  history. 

The  people  at  Yarmouth  sent  Robinson  and  the 
others  of  the  shipwrecked  crew  to  London.  Here 
he  began  life,  on  a  small  scale,  as  a  trader  with 
Guinea  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  made  one  suc- 
cessful voyage  there.  In  a  second  voyage  he  was 
taken  prisoner  by  a  Moorish  corsair,  and  had  to 
serve  a  Moorish  nobleman  as  a  slave.  But  he  for- 
tunately escaped  with  a  black  slave  named  Xury, 
and  was  picked  up  by  a  vessel  which  carried  him 
to  Rio  Janeiro. 

Here  he  became  a  Brazilian  planter.  He  sent 
back  to  London  for  such  money  as  he  had  there, 
which  came  out  to  him  in  well  assorted  English 
goods.  And  here  he  might  have  lived  and  died, 
and  none  of  us  would  ever  have  heard  of  him,  but 
that  he  and  his  neighbors  wanted  more  slaves  than 
they  had.  In  an  evil  hour  for  Robinson  Crusoe  he 
engaged  in  a  voyage  to  the  African  coast  that  he 


ii6  boys'  heroes. 

mi^ht  obtain  slaves  for  himself  and  his  friends. 
The  vessel,  however,  had  not  been  long  at  sea 
when  she  was  struck  by  a  storm  and  wrecked  on  a 
small  island  at  the  mouth  of  the  River  Oronoco. 
Robinson  was  the  only  man  who  saved  his  life. 
On  this  island  he  lived  for  twenty-eight  years. 

The  title  page  of  the  early  editions  is  perfectly 
distinct  as  to  the  place  of  his  residence.  In  twenty 
places  in  the  book  itself  he  states  where  he  was. 
There  is  really  no  excuse  for  the  common  state- 
ment of  half  the  school  geographies  and  half  the 
newspapers  that  he  lived  on  Juan  Fernandez  on 
the  other  side  of  South  America. 

He  had  lived  twenty-four  or  twenty-iive  years 
alone  on  his  island,  when  on  a  visit  from  some 
savages  who  had  come  over  from  the  mainland  to 
celebrate  a  victory,  he  was  able  to  rescue  from 
them  one  of  their  prisoners,  who  became  his  com- 
panion and  slave.  Robinson  gave  to  him  the  name 
of  "  Friday,"  from  the  day  of  his  capture.  In  the 
third  year  after,  they  rescued  some  Spaniards  and 
Friday's  father,  who  had  been  brought  over  for  a 
celebration   like   the  other.      The    Spaniards   had 


ROBINSON    CRUSOE.  1 17 

been  sent  back  to  the  mainland  to  bring  some  coun- 
trymen of  theirs  to  .join  the  islanders,  when  an 
English  ship,  which  proved  to  be  in  the  hands  of 
mutineers,  anchored  in  the  offing.  Robinson  and 
Friday  succeeded  in  rescuing  the  captain  and 
making  the  mutineers  prisoners.  The  grateful 
captain  put  the  ship  at  his  disposal,  as  well  he 
might.  Robinson  was  eager  to  leave  his  domain, 
and  sailed  with  Friday,  leaving  his  new  Spanish 
friend  to  his  fate.  He  did  this  without  hesitation. 
But  to  us  it  seems  that  he  ought  to  have  waited. 
He  had  been  on  his  island,  according  to  his  own 
•statement,  twenty-eight  years,two  months  and  nine- 
teen days.  This  would  make  his  departure  from  it 
December  19,  1687.  But  his  own  figures  say  that 
he  left  on  the  nineteenth  of  December,  1686,  and 
that  he  arrived  in  England,  June  11,  1687.  This 
would  give  only  twenty-seven  years  and  the  odd 
months  and  days  on  the  island. 

He  found  that  the  various  agents  who  had  had 
the  charge  of  his  property  were  willing  to  deal 
honestly  with  him,  and  that  he  was  a  rich  man. 
His  property  in  various  forms  was  worth  fifty  thou- 


ii8  boys'  heroes. 

sand  pounds.  In  the  inquiries  regarding  this  prop- 
erty he  went  to  Lisbon,  and  he  returned  through 
France  in  winter,  by  a  joarney  which  proved  most 
perilous.  He  arrived  in  England  again  on  the  four- 
teenth of  January,  1683,  having  been  gone  from 
England,  this  time,  nine  months. 

He  then  married,  and  had  three  or  four  children. 
He  took  a  farm  in  Bedford  and  became  a  coun- 
try gentleman,  living  a  most  agreeable  life.  But 
in  the  midst  of  his  happiness,  his  wife  died,  and 
his  home  was  broken  up.  He  felt  all  a  stranger 
in  the  world.  In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1693, 
he  went  to  London,  and  there  met  his  nephew, 
whom  he  had  brought  up  to  the  sea  since  his  re- 
turn. This  nephew  proposed  to  him  a  voyage  to 
his  old  island,  in  a  ship  of  which  he  was  master. 
Crusoe  struggled  against  the  temptation.  But  he 
saw  no  reason  why  he  should  not  go,  as  indeed 
there  was  none,  if  he  could  provide  well  for  his 
children,  and,  after  a  year's  preparation  —  so  much 
time  did  the  outfit  for  a  voyage  then  require  —  he 
sailed  again  from  England  on  January  8,  1694-95. 
It  was  on  this  voyage  that  he  almost  came  to  Bos- 


ROBINSON    CRUSOE.  1 19 

ton.  What  a  pity  he  did  not !  He  had  rescued 
the  crews  of  two  vessels  in  great  distress  —  and  at 
one  moment  it  seemed  as  if  they  might  have  to 
come  for  supplies  to  "  Virginia  or  any  part  of  the 
coast  of  America."  But  alas  for  our  fathers,  this 
did  not  prove  necessar)^  On  April  lo,  1695,  ^^"'^y 
found  his  island,  after  a  good  deal  of  difficulty, 
having  touched  at  several  places  which  were  quite 
wrong.  The  colonists  had  had  a  sufficiently  hard 
time,  both  in  repelling  invasion  from  savages,  and 
in  putting  under  some  of  the  mutineers.  But  in 
the  end  law  and  order  had  triumphed.  The  Span- 
iards were  living  in  Robinson's  old  castle,  and  the 
English  party  in  two  other  little  colonies,  with 
quite  a  number  of  Indians  who  were,  I  am  sorry  to 
say,  used  as  slaves  by  the  rest  when  they  wanted 
them.  But  there  was  one  party  of  the  savages 
consisting  of  thirty-seven  who  lived  by  themselves, 
on  a  neck  of  land  in  the  southeast  corner  of  the 
island ;  "  the  most  subjected  innocent  creatures 
that  were  ever  heard  of."  The  Englishmen  had 
obtained  wives  for  themselves  in  an  excursion  to 
the  neighboring  islands. 


I20  boys'  heroes. 

With  these  people  Robinson  Crusoe  left  a  tailor, 
a  smith,  and  two  carpenters,  and  a  "general  arti- 
ficer "  whom  he  calls,  the  "  Jack-of-all-trades,  an 
ingenious  and  merry  fellow."  This  man  married  at 
the  island  an  English  maid-servant  whom  they  had 
picked  up  from  one  of  the  ships  which  they  had 
relieved  by  the  way.  And  Robinson  left  them 
there.  He  also  left  a  Catholic  priest  whom  they 
had  taken  from  another  ship,  and  this  priest  mar- 
ried all  the  men  to  their  savage  wives  after  fit  ex- 
planations of  the  contract  to  them.  After  a  stay 
of  five  and  twenty  days,  Robinson  left  the  island. 

Alas !  on  the  third  day,  as  they  approached 
Brazil,  an  enormous  fleet  of  canoes  surrounded  the 
vessel  when  she  was  at  anchor.  When  Friday  was 
trying  to  communicate  with  them,  they  shot  a  cloud 
of  arrows  into  the  vessel  and  killed  him.  With  a 
sad  heart  Robinson  went  on  to  the  Bay  of  Todos 
Santos,  and  here  met  his  old  partner.  They  set 
up  a  sloop  there,  which  he  had  brought,  ready  to 
frame,  from  England,  and  sent  several  more  colo- 
nists to  the  islands  wdth  cows,  horses,  calves  and 
swine.  These  people  all  arrived  safely  and  Robinson 


ROBINSON    CRUSOE.  121 

received  letters  by  the  sloop  from  the  island  after- 
wards. At  a  later  time  he  had  letters  once  more 
when  they  were  not  faring  well.  And  that  is  the 
very  last  that  was  ever  heard  of  them. 

As  for  Robinson  Crusoe,  he  took  passage  for  the 
East  Indies  with  his  nephew.  He  touched  at  the 
Cape,  at  Madagascar,  in  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  in 
the  harbor  of  Bengal,  as  he  calls  it,  he  had  a  quarrel 
with  the  crew  of  his  nephew's  ship.  His  nephew 
left  him  there  with  all  his  goods,  much  as  Sindbad 
\^  was  once  or  twice  left  alone  in  similar  regions. 

But  Robinson  was  not  unused  to  such  things.  He 
sold  his  goods  and  bought  diamonds,  very  good  ones, 
so  that  he  could  carry  all  his  estate  with  him.  He 
remained  there  some  time,  and  then  with  a  friend 
taking  ship,  made  a  voyage  to  Sumatra  and  Siam 
which  occupied  eight  months,  and  was  successful. 

A  second  successful  voyage  of  five  months  took 
him  to  Borneo,  and  the  Spice  Islands.  In  the  course 
of  his  speculations  he  bought,  in  good  faith,  a  Dutch 
ship  of  two  hundred  tons,  and  he  spent  six  years 
trading  from  port  to  port.  But  once  when  he  was 
in  this  vessel,  in  the  river  of  Cambodia,  he  found 


122  BOYS     HEROES. 

out  that  he  had  made  a  very  risky  purchase.  For 
he  had  bought  her  of  a  pack  of  mutineers,  and,  at 
the  very  moment  when  he  learned  this,  five  armed 
boats  were  coming  down  the  river  to  take  him  as  a 
pirate.  He  had  but  just  time  to  hoist  his  anchor 
and  make  sail  when  the  five  boats  appeared.  Rob- 
inson sank  the  leading  boat,  but  picked  up  three  of 
her  men,  from  whom  he  learned  the  detail  of  the 
charges  made  against  him.  The  ship  was  perfectly 
well  known,  and  it  was  supposed  that  he  was  the 
leader  of  the  mutineers. 

Naturally  enough  he  and  his  partner  did  not 
dare  to  go  back  to  Bengal  with  such  a  reputation. 
They  kept  eastward,  and  coming  into  a  creek  in 
Cochin-China,  careened  and  repaired  the  vessel, 
with  no  lack  of  adventures. 

Persevering  eastward  he  had  the  good  fortune  to 
pick  up  a  pilot  who  took  him  to  a  Chinese  port 
called  Quinchang.  And  here  he  fell  in  with  a 
Japanese  merchant  who  bought  all  his  opium  and 
took  the  ship  to  Japan,  and  Robinson  found  him- 
self left  alone  in  China.  In  those  days,  however, 
foreigners  could  travel  in  China ;  and  he  went  by 


ROBINSON    CRUSOE.  1 23 

land  to  Nankin,  then  to  Pekin,  and  to  the  city  of 
Naum,  if  any  one  can  find  that. 

Then  for  sixteen  days,  he  went  through  "  No- 
man's-land  "  and  on  April  13,  1703,  came  out  at  the 
fortress  of  Argun,  the  first  point  which  belonged  to 
the  Czar  of  Muscovy.  Seven  months  of  such 
travelling  brought  him  to  Tobolsk,  then  the  capital 
of  Siberia ;  and  here  he  spent  the  whole  winter. 
He  made  acquaintance  with  an  exiled  nobleman, 
and  offered  to  carry  him  back  to  Europe.  This 
gentleman  declined  the  offer,  but  introduced  his 
son  to  Robinson,  who  brought  him  successfully  to 
Archangel,  where  they  arrived  July  18,  1704.  And 
here  they  sailed  for  the  Elbe,  and  Robinson  staid 
four  months  in  Hamburg  selling  his  goods.  His 
own  share  amounted  to  three  thousand  four  hun- 
dred and  seventy-five  pounds,  seventeen  shillings 
and  three  pence. 

Thence  he  crossed  over  land  to  the  Hague,  and 
by  the  packet  to  England,  arrived  in  London,  Jan- 
uary 10,  1705.  He  says  himself,  that  he  had  been 
absent  from  England  ten  years  and  nine  months ; 
but  any  one  who  makes  the  computation  sees  that 


124  boys'  heroes. 

he  had  been  absent  eleven  years,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  two  days.  "  And  here,"  he  says,  "  resolving 
to  harass  myself  no  more,  I  am  prepared  for  a 
longer  journey  than  all  those,  having  lived  seventy- 
two  years,  a  life  of  infinite  variety,  and  learned  suffi- 
ciently to  know  the  value  of  retirement,  and  the 
blessing  of  ending  our  days  in  peace." 

And  thiis  is  the  last  that  is  known  of  Robinson 
Crusoe,  excepting  that  he  died.  That  he  died, 
is  known  by  the  testimony  of  one  of  his  descendants, 
who  lived  to  the  age  of  manhood.  This  descend- 
ant, whose  name  is  not  known,  wrote  a  ballad,  of 
which  the  first  verse  is : 

When  I  was  a  lad 

I  had  a  cause  to  be  sad 
For  my  grandfather  I  did  lose  —  Ol 

I  bet  you  a  can 

You  have  heard  of  the  man, 
For  his  name  it  was  Robinson  Crusoe. 

Now  Robinson's  oldest  child  was  born  sometime 
in  the  year  1691.  If  this  grandchild  was  born  even 
as  early  as  17 11,  and  were  "a  lad"  old  enough  at 
four  years  of  age  to  feel  the  sentiment  of  sadness 


ROBINSON    CRUSOE.  125 

on  the  death  of  a  grandfather,  Robinson  Crusoe 
must  have  lived  to  the  age  of  at  least  eighty-three. 
But  of  the  last  nine  years  of  his  life,  written  history 
makes  no  record,  excepting  the  two  letters  he  re- 
ceived from  his  island,  in  that  time.  The  annals 
of  those  years  are  to  be  looked. for,  and  his  epitaph 
sought,  if  anywhere,  in  the  county  of  Bedfordshire. 
Now  it  is  quite  sure  that  much  of  the  interest 
with  which  we  follow  Robinson  Crusoe  is  due  to 
the  style  in  which  De  Foe  has  told  the  story.  It  is, 
perhaps  —  it  is  probably  —  the  best  long  piece  of 
narrative  English  which  was  ever  written.  Frank- 
lin, who  formed  his  style  on  the  study  of  De  Foe, 
approaches  him  I  think,  more  nearly  than  any  other 
writer.  So  far  as  the  study  of  authors  goes,  I  think 
that  the  narrative  of  these  two  men  would  be  the 
best  model  we  could  give  a  foreigner.  But  it  is 
not  the  style  of  the  book  which  has  given  it  its 
welcome  in  the  world.  It  is  the  man,  so  imagined 
that  we  think  him  real,  who  tells  so  openly  such 
a  story  of  himself.  He  grows  in  years,  and  in  char- 
acter, before  our  eyes.  Fie  makes  mistakes,  he 
commits  crimes,  he  sinks  in  vices  —  and  he  tells  of 


126  boys'  heroes. 

them.  He  repents,  he  turns  about,  he  reforms,  he 
gains  strength  from  the  Fountain  of  Strength  — 
and  he  tells  us  that  just  as  simply. 

It  is  not  often  that  a  book  traces  a  hero  from  his 
birth  to  the  age  of  seventy.  A  certain  interest 
attaches  to  all  such  books  —  even  when  they  are 
badly  done,  even  if  the  hero  move  on,  the  same 
unchanged  china  image,  from  babyhood  to  old 
age.  The  great  merit  of  this  book  is  that  the 
hero  does  change.  He  profits  by  experience.  He 
profits  by  advice.  He  is  a  different  man  at  forty 
from  what  he  was  at  thirty,  as  at  thirty  he  differed 
from  what  he  was  at  twenty.     He  is  very  human. 

And  he  interests  us  because  he  does  so  much  for 
himself,  and  has  not  to  rest  on  others.  He  had 
learned  how  to  make  baskets.  He  had  not  learned 
how  to  make  pipkins,  but  he  taught  himself.  He 
made  mistakes  about  his  corn,  but  things  came  right 
in  the  end.  And  he  learned,  before  he  was  too  far 
gone,  that  the  Universe  was  not  his  Universe,  nor 
the  world  his  world.  He  determined  that  the  best 
thing  for  him  to  do  was  to  be  a  fellow-workman 
together  with  God. 


IX. 


ISRAEL    PUTNAM. 


YES,"  said  Enos  Tait,  "there  is  a  boy's  hero. 
He  is  not  a  hero  like  some  people  on  your 
list,  whom  no  boy  ever  heard  of." 

"  And  what  do  you  know  of  Israel  Putnam  ? " 
said  his  father,  who  was  not  very  enthusiastic  about 
"  Old  Put."  To  tell  the  whole  truth,  the  most  pro- 
found students  of  American  History  are  not  apt 
to  be  enthusiastic  when  his  name  is  mentioned. 

"  First,"  said  Enos  bravely,  "  he  left  his  plough 
in  the  furrow.  I  like  him  for  that."  In  truth  I 
have  always  observ^ed  that  leaving  the  plough  in 
the  furrow  is  a  manoeuvre  boys  do  not  dislike  — 
when  a  truly  good  man  suggests  or  compels  it. 

"There  is  a  picture  of  it  in  the  Town  Library," 

said  Enos,  "  and  the  White  Horse  is  beyond  which 

Old  Put  is  going  to  ride  to  Lexington." 

127 


128  boys'  heroes. 

"  Then  there  is  the  wolf !  "  cried  Ethelbert. 

"Yes,  there's  the  wolf.  And  there  is  his  ride 
down  the  stone  steps.  I  used  to  think  the  steps  were 
in  Boston,  between  Cornnill  and  Brattle  street." 

"  Then  there  is  '  P.  S.  P.  M.  He  is  hanged,'  "  said 
his  mother.  "  I  always  liked  that.  I  read  that  at 
school  before  I  knew  what  P.  S.  or  P.  M.  meant." 

"  I  think  myself,"  said  Mr.  Tait,  melting  a  little 
before  their  enthusiasm,  "that  that  is  the  best  thing 
you  have  named.  What  is  very  funny  is,  that  one 
of  the  histories  alters  it  to,  '  He  is  executed.'  '  Old 
Put'  could  no  more  have  spelled  '  executed '  than 
he  could  have  danced  the  Redowa." 

"  Did  he  spell  badly  ?  "  asked  Charlotte. 

"He  spelled  horribly  —  could  not  spell  at  all." 

"  I  am  sure  I  like  him  for  that,"  said  poor  Char- 
lotte, whose  spelling  is  her  very  weakest  point.  I 
always  encourage  her  by  telling  her  that  in  the 
next  century  people  will  spell  as  they  choose  [inn 
the  next  senchury  peple  wil  spel  as  tha  chews]. 

"We  will  have  him  for  a  girls'  hero,  as  well  at  a 
boys'  hero,"  said  Charlotte,  well  pleased. 

After  this  we  took  down  from  the  shelves  : 


ISRAEL    PUTNAM.  1 29 

Miss  Larned's  History  of  Windha7n  County^  Daw- 
son's Gleanings  from  the  Hat'vest  Field  of  American 
History^  Humphreys's  Life  of  Putnam^  Tarbox's 
Life  of  Puttia7n,  Fuller's  Veil  Uplifted,\N.  B.  O.  Pea- 
body's  Life  of  Putnam^  Swett's  Battle  of  Biuiker 
Hill,  Lossing's  article  on  Putnam  in  Harper's 
Magazirie. 

Out  of  these,  among  us,  we  collected  the  narra- 
tives from  which  Colonel  Humphreys  made  the  Life, 
from  which  the  well-known  anecdotes  in  the  school- 
books  have  been  taken. 

The  truth  is  that  Putnam  was  by  no  means  a 
great  man.  If  ever  anybody  was  unfit  to  be  a 
Major  General,  it  was  he.  But  he  was  a  thoroughly 
courageous  man,  and  he  had  the  good  luck  to  have 
his  story  told  by  Humphreys  at  a  time  when  the 
people  of  this  country  were  wild  for  heroes  and 
stories  of  heroes.  No  story  suffered  in  Humphreys's 
hands  —  as  the  boys  and  girls  will  guess  who  live 
near  Horse  Neck,  and  who  have  seen  the  terrible 
picture  of  Putnam's  ride  in  Mr.  Lossing's  book  in 
which  he  bounds  on  horseback  down  the  hill  there. 

I,  who  tell  you  this  story,  have  gone  into  the 


130  BOYS     HEROES. 

Wolf's  Den,  and  I  needed  no  rope  round  my  waist 
to  pull  nie  out.  But  whether  I  should  have  gone  in 
were  a  wolf  at  the  other  end,  I  am  not  sure.  More 
than  this,  when  the  wolf  was  there,  it  was  winter, 
and  the  rocks  were  covered  with  ice,  and  were  "  ex- 
ceedingly slippery."  If  I  told  the  whole  story  as 
Colonel  Humphreys  tells  it  it  would  take  up  all 
this  chapter.     But  here  is  the  critical  passage  : 

Cautiously  proceeding  onward,  he  came  to  the  ascent; 
which  he  slowly  mounted  on  his  hands  and  knees  until  he 
discovered  the  glaring  eyeballs  of  the  wolf,  who  was  sitting 
at  the  extremity  of  the  cavern.  Startled  at  the  sight  of  fire, 
she  gnashed  her  teeth,  and  gave  a  sullen  growl.  As  soon  as 
he  had  made  the  necessary  discovery,  he  kicked  the  rope  as 
a  signal  for  pulling  him  out.  The  people  at  the  mouth  of 
the  den,  who  had  listened  with  painful  anxiety,  hearing  the 
growling  of  the  wolf,  and  supposing  their  friend  to  lie  in  the 
most  imminent  danger,  drew  him  forth  with  such  celerity 
that  his  shirt  was  stripped  over  his  head  and  his  skin 
severely  lacerated.  After  he  had  adjusted  his  clothes,  and 
loaded  his  gun  with  nine  buck-shot,  holding  a  torch  in  one 
hand  and  the  musket  in  the  other,  he  descended  the  second 
time.  When  he  drew  nearer  than  before,  the  wolf,  assuming 
a  still  more  fierce  and  terrible  appearance,  howling,  rolling 
her  eyes,  snapping  her  teeth,  and  dropping  her  head  between 


ISRAEL    PUTNAM.  131 

her  legs,  was  evidently  in  the  attitude,  and  on  the  point  of 
springing  at  him.  At  the  critical  instant  he  levelled  and 
fired  at  her  head.  Stunned  with  the  shock,  and  suffocated 
with  the  smoke,  he  immediately  found  himself  drawn  out  of 
the  cave.  But  having  refreshed  himself,  and  permitted  the 
smoke  to  dissipate,  he  went  down  the  third  time.  Once 
more  he  came  within  sight  of  the  wolf,  who  appearing  very 
passive,  he  applied  the  torch  to  her  nose,  and  perceiving  her 
dead,  he  took  hold  of  her  ears,  and  then  kicking  the  rope 
(still  tied  roun'd  his  legs),  the  people  above  with  no  small 
exultation  dragged  them  both  out  together. 

"  You  keep  saying,  '  Colonel  Humphreys,'  with  a 
sort  of  sneer,  papa,"  said  Enos.  "  What  is  the 
matter  with  Colonel  Humphreys." 

His  father  acknowledged  the  impropriety  of  his 
sneering,  and  said  he  would  try  to  laugh.  Colonel 
Humphreys  was  first  an  aid  of  Putnam's,  when  he 
probably  had  to  see  to  his  spelling,  and  afterward 
was  an  aid  to  Washington.  Humphreys  had  a  cer- 
tain literary  turn,  and  is  one  of  the  early  American 
authors,  of  the  era  after  the  Revolution.  When  Mr. 
Tait,  Enos's  father,  spoke  lightly  of  him,  just  what 
he  meant  was  this:  Humphreys  had  heard  dear 
'^  Old  Put"  spin  these  yarns  over  and  over  again. 


132  BOYS     HEROES. 

I  believe  that  after  General  Putnam  had  had  a  stroke 
of  paralysis,  and  was  living  at  home  like  a  caged  lion, 
Colonel  Humphreys  went  and  visited  him.  Then 
Doctor  Albigence  Waldo  kindly  sent  him  anecdotes 
which  "Old  Put  "  had  told  him.  From  such  mate- 
rials Colonel  Humphreys  made  up  the  Life  of  Put- 
nam which  he  sent  to  the  Society  of  Cincinnati 
of  Connecticut,  and  which  is  the  reservoir  for  the 
stories  which  have  made  him  a  boys'  hero. 

When  this  was  duly  explained  to  Mrs.  Tait  and 
to  Charlotte,  they  said  that  it  was  in  this  way  they 
preferred  to  have  history  written.  It  made  it  much 
more  entertaining. 

In  1755,  when  he  was  thirty-seven  years  old, 
Putnam  took  charge  of  a  company  of  volunteers  in 
the  Connecticut  contingent  which  joined  the  Eng- 
lish army  against  the  French.  It  was  in  the  cam- 
paigns which  followed,  that  the  adventures  took 
place  in  which  he  saved  the  magazine  of  Fort  Ed- 
ward, in  which  he  and  Durkee  were  so  closely  pur- 
sued, and  tumbled  together  into  the  same  place  of 
refuge,  and  in  which  he  found  fourteen  bullet-holes 
through  his  blanket.     Modern  criticism  has  shown 


ISRAEL    PUTNAM.  133 

that  the  blanket  must  have  been  folded  when  it 
was  struck  ;  but  the  Tait  children  agreed  that  one 
bullet  which  had  force  enough  to  cut  through  an 
old-fashioned  home-spun  blanket  fourteen  times, 
was  an  uncomfortable  neighbor.  Either  this  or 
another  bullet  had  struck  Putnam's  canteen,  so 
that  the  fugitives  had  not  a  drop  of  liquor. 

When  this  was  read  from  Colonel  Humphreys's 
book,  aunt  Lois  expressed  her  joy ;  but  Charlotte 
explained  that  the  danger  to  poor  Putnam's  person 
was  the  same,  whether  the  canteen  contained  New 
England  rum  or  water. 

The  war  in  Canada  ended,  virtually,  by  the  fall 
of  Quebec,  and  in  1761  Putnam  was  again  at  home. 
But  he  volunteered  again  in  the  Connecticut  con- 
tingent which  joined  the  English  force  against 
Havana.  The  arrival  of  the  reinforcements  from 
New  England  saved  the  English  expedition,  and 
the  capture  of  Havana  soon  followed.  Had  it  not 
been  returned  to  Spain  by  the  treaty  of  the  next 
year,  Cuba  would  probably  now  belong  to  the 
United  States  or  Great  Britain. 

And  now  he  returned  to  his  farmer's  life  for 


134  boys'  heroes. 

twelve  years.    He  took  part  in  the  protests  against 
the  use  of  stamped  paper,  which,  in  fact,  kept  Con- 
necticut free  even  from  the  presence  of  a  sheet  of 
it.      He  went  once  to   Natchez,  where  land  had 
been  granted  to  the  survivors  of  the  Havana  expe- 
dition, and  he  sent  some  laborers  and  tools  there. 
Once  and  again  he  was  in  Boston,  and  met  there 
Gage,  Colonel  Small  and  other  officers  with  whom 
he  had  served  in  the   French  War.     He  also  met 
Lord  Percy.    With  these  gentlemen  he  had  friendly 
converse  on  the  threatening  state  of   affairs.     Be- 
ing once,  in  particular,  asked,  "  whether  he  did  not 
seriously    believe    that    a   well-appointed    British 
army  of  five  thousand  veterans  could  march  through 
the    whole    continent   of    America  ? "    he    replied 
briskly,  "  No  doubt,  if   they  behaved    civilly,  and 
paid  well  for  everything  they  wanted  ;  but  " —  after 
a  moment's  pause  added  —  "  if  they  should  attempt 
it  in  a  hostile  manner  (though  the  American  men 
were   out  of    the  question)  the  women,  with   their 
ladles  and  broomsticks,  would  knock  them  all  on 
the  head  before  they  had  got  half  way  through." 
Meanwhile,  at  home,  the  militia  were  under  reg- 


ISRAEL    PUTNAM. 


135 


ular  training  for  service,  and  such  men  as  he  were 
of  course  chosen  commanders.  The  news  of  Lex- 
ington found  him  ploughing  —  as  the  picture  shows 
which  Enos  Tait  had  seen  —  and  without  changing 
his  clothes  he  set  out  for  Boston. 

He  was  at  once  appointed  a  Major  General  by 
his  own  colony.  As  such  he  probably  gave  com- 
mands to  the  Connecticut  regiments  at  Bunker 
Hill  —  where  he  was  present.  He  was  not  the  com- 
mander-in-chief, for  the  expedition  was  sent  out  by 
General  Ward,  who  had  a  Massachusetts  commis- 
sion, and  had  directed  Colonel  Prescott  to  fortify 
the  hill,  which  he  did.  Putnam  had  meanwhile 
distinguished  himself  in  a  skirmish,  in  which  an 
English  vessel  was  burned  at  Hog-Island ;  just 
beyond  what  is  now  East  Boston.  The  news 
of  this  reached  Philadelphia  in  time  to  quicken 
Congress  in  making  him  a  Major-General  on  the 
Continental  establishment.  If  Congress  were  to 
fight  battles,  it  would  not  do  to  have  a  general 
from  Connecticut,  who  owed  no  allegiance  to  a 
general  from  Massachusetts.  On  the  very  day  that 
Putnam  was  trying  to  fortify  Bunker  Hill,  to  cover 


136  boys'  heroes. 

the  retreat  of  Prescott  and  his  men  who  were  on 
Breed's  Hill,  Congress  made  him  a  Major-General 
of  the  United  States.  It  was  in  the  same  series  of 
appointments  in  which  ^Washington  was  named 
Commander-in-Chief. 

When  the  English  left  Boston,  Putnam  was  sent 
to  New  York  and  assisted  in  the  effort  to  defend 
that  city.  Just  before  the  fatal  battle  of  Long 
Island  he  was  appointed  to  the  command  there. 
The  failure  of  the  American  troops  has  been 
charged  to  his  incompetency,  but  perhaps  he  had 
not  fair  time  to  make  proper  arrangements  to  re- 
pel the  attack.  After  this  he  held  the  command, 
at  one  time  of  the  posts  above  New  York.  It  was 
when  he  was  in  this  command  that  he  made  the 
Break-neck  ride,  and  that  he  wrote  the  note,  with 
"  P.  S.  P.  M.  He  is  hanged,"  which  so  pleased 
Mrs.  Tait  for  its  brevity. 

But,  in  December,  1779,  the  fine  old  fellow  was 
struck  with  paralysis  which  disabled  him,  and  he 
resigned  his  command  in  the  army.  From  that 
time  till  he  died  he  lived  in  Pomfret  telling  his 
old  stories  and  fighting  his  old  battles. 


X. 


GENERAL    LAFAYETTE. 

MR.  FIELDS  was  fond  of  telling  of  his  sur- 
prise when  a  gentleman  who  had  had 
decent  opportunities  of  education  asked  him  one 
day  if  he  had  known  Mr.  Pope,  the  poet,  person- 
ally. 

Mr.  Fields  would  have  needed  to  be  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  years  old  to  have  seen  the  great 
poet  —  and  as  he  was  one  of  the  youngest  of  men, 
till  the  day  he  died,  he  was  much  amused  at  the 
supposition. 

Mr.  Scroop  was  as  much  amused  when  Lucy 
Flint  asked  him  if  he  had  known  General  Israel 
Putnam.  The  dear  old  Wolf-Killer  died  ninety- 
five  years  ago.  But  Lucy  is  not  very  strong  in 
her  chronology.  And,  when  the  others  laughed  at 
her  —  and  Mr.  Scroop  tried  to  relieve  her,  by  teli- 

^Z7 


138  boys'  heroes. 

ing  her  that  she  had  not  been  rude,  as  she  feared 
—  he  said,  "  To  comfort  you,  Lucy,  I  will  tell  you 
that  I  have  seen  the  next  hero  on  this  list  with 
these  eyes. 

"It  was  Lafayette,"  said  he.  "Marie  Jean 
Paul  Roch  Yves  Gilbert  Motier,  Marquis  de  La- 
fayette. He  has  a  long  name,  but  in  America,  in 
the  army,  he  was  affectionately  known  as  the  Mar- 
quis. And  many  a  man  was  christened  '  Marquis,' 
in  his  honor,  a  hundred  or  more  years  ago." 

In  Feudal  times,  and  before,  a. man  who  was  ap- 
pointed to  guard  the  Marches  or  frontiers  of  a  king- 
dom was  called  by  a  name  which  was  eventually 
corrupted  into  Marquis  —  and  Lafayette  inherited 
this  title. 

"  Now  he  was  a  bovs'  hero  indeed,"  said  Mr. 
Scroop,  "  and  a  man's  hero  too." 

"  And  what  is  the  difference  "i "  asked  Will. 

"  To  name  no  other,"  said  his  father,  "  I 
think  that  boys  would  like,  in  general,  to  have 
their  heroes  start  early  in  life  —  and  to  shew  that 
affairs  may  pivot  on  people  of  sixteen  or  eighteen, 
as  well  as  on  old  statesmen  of  seventy-five." 


GENERAL    LAFAYETTE.  139 

"  As  they  did  when  that  dreadful  child  —  in 
that  impossible  Sunday-school  story  —  '  pushed  a 
pound  '  in  the  fictitious  launching,  of  a  ship  which 
was  never  built,"  said  Lucy. 

"  Do  not  be  skeptical  before  your  years,  my 
dear.  At  any  rate  you  will  be  satisfied  with  La- 
fayette —  who  was  wounded  in  the  battle  of  Bran- 
dywine  when  he  was  younger  than  some  of  the 
officers  whom  I  have  applauded  in  a  school-drill 
in  the  Boston  Theatre." 

Winifred  pricked  up  her  ears  at  this  and  be- 
gan to  listen.  "  And  were  you  at  the  battle  too  ?  " 
she  said. 

At  this  the  others  laughed  heartily  again,  and 
explained  to  her  that  the  battle  was  a  hundred  and 
eight  years  ago.  To  all  which  Winifred  said  that 
she  did  not  care  —  that  she  was  sure  Mr.  Scroop  had 
said  he  had  seen  Lafayette  —  and  she  thought  he 
might  have  carried  him  from  the  field. 

Mr.  Scroop  hastened  to  explain  that  he  saw 
Lafayette  the  day  when  the  cornerstone  of  Bunker 
Hill  Monument  was  laid.  "  I  was  a  little  boy," 
he  said,  "  three  years  and  three  months  old.     I  had 


14©  boys'  heroes. 

had  the  scarlet  fever,  and  was  very  weak.  But 
when  the  procession  with  the  hero,  passed,  on  its 
way  to  the  ceremony,  it  was  wisely  thought  that  I 
should  be  pleased  to  see  the  show,  and  I  was 
carried  to  the  window.  The  windows  of  the 
Parker  House,  opposite  the  Tremont  House,  look 
out  on  the  same  spot  of  the  same  street  from  the 
same  side  to-day.  But  then  there  was  neither 
Parker  House  nor  Tremont  House." 

"  And  how  did  he  look,  uncle  John,  was  he 
walking,  or  was  he  on  horseback  ?  " 

"Or was  he  borne  on  the  shoulders  of  men?" 

"  Woe  is  me  !  "  cried  uncle  John,  "  I  am  a  living 
instance  of  the  worthlessness  of  tradition.  These 
eyes  have  seen  him.  But  I  do  not  remember  one 
least  hair  of  his  head.  I  do  not  even  remember 
that  I  have  remembered  him.  I  do  remember  the 
green  feathers  in  the  hats  of  a  militia  company 
called  the  '  Rifle  Rangers.'  These  pleased  my 
young  fancy  more  than  the  hero  did. 

"  Also  I  remember  the  badges  with  his  picture 
printed  upon  them.  Some  were  pink,  some  were 
blue,  and  some  were  white.     And  your  aunt  Mrs. 


BARTHOLDI'S  STATUE  OF  LAFAYETIE. 


GENERAL    LAFAYETTE.  1 43 

Rhoades  has  one  this  day  to  show  if  what  I  say  be 
true. 

"But  these  realities  are  all  I  remember." 

"  How  was  he  wounded  when  he  was  a  boy, 
uncle  John .? " 

"  He  was  wounded  in  the  leg,  and  he  wrote  his 
young  wife  a  very  pretty  letter  about  it." 

"  Why,  was  he  married  already  .-* "  cried  almost 
all  the  boys  and  girls,  in  amazement.  "  Pray  how 
old  was  he  when  he  was  married  ?  "  asked  Robert, 
who  was  at  that  age  when  boys  wonder  how  their 
fathers  ever  had  courage  to  ask  any  girl  to  marry 
them. 

Uncle  John  explained  again  that  so  far  as  this 
went,  all  the  asking  was  probably  done  by  some- 
body else.  The  young  marquis,  who  did  not 
remember  his  own  father,  was  born  on  the  sixth  of 
September,  1757.  He  was  at  eleven  placed  in  a 
school  in  Paris,  and  while  he  was  there,  his  mother 
died.  The  death  of  her  father  made  the  young 
marquis  a  rich  man.  He  was  married  at  the  age 
of  sixteen.  He  was  on  duty  with  his  regiment,  in 
the  city  of  Metz,  a  garrison  town  in  the  east  of 


144  boys'  heroes. 

France,  when  the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  a  younger 
brother  of  George  the  Third,  came  there  on  a  visit. 
The  young  Lafayette  met  the  young  prince  at  a 
dinner  party.  The  talk  turned  on  the  rebellion  of 
the  American  colonies  of  England.  What  Lafay- 
ette heard  then  started  him  upon  his  career.  It 
was  the  good  fortune  of  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  to 
set  in  motion  the  most  efficient  ally  America  had 
in  the  Revolution.  When  Mr.  Scroop  told  the 
children  this  story  he  said : 

"  I  do  not  at  this  moment  remember  anything 
else  which  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  ever  did  for  his 
country." 

Nor  do  L 

Lafayette  was  thoroughly  good  about  coming  to 
help  the  rebels.  He  fitted  out  a  ship  at  his  own 
cost,  with  such  stores  as  he  thought  would  be  of 
value,  and  sailed  in  her.  His  boy-letters  to  his 
young  wife  on  the  voyage  and  afterwards  are  charm- 
ing. He  calls  her  "  Mon  cher  coeur,"  which  means, 
I  suppose,  '  my  sweetheart.'  He  sends  pretty  mes- 
sages to  his  baby,  Henrietta,  whom  he  was  never 
to  see  again. 


GENERAL    LAFAYETTE.  1 45 

Since  my  last  letter,  I  have  been  in  the  country  which 
is  the  most  disagreeable  in  the  world,  I  mean  the  sea  —  for 
the  sea  is  so  sad,  and  I  believe  that  the  sea  and  I  mutually 
sadden  each  other. 

And  again  he  says, 

I  am  still  on  this  sad  plain,  and  that  is  certainly  the  most 
tedious  thing  which  one  can  do.  There  is  nothing  tedious 
enough  to  compare  with  it.  To  console  myself  a  little,  I 
think  of  you  and  my  friends.  I  think  of  the  pleasure  of 
seeing  you  again.  How  charming  the  moment  when  I  shall 
come  home.  I  shall  come  in  suddenly  to  embrace  you  with- 
out being  expected  ;  perhaps  the  children  will  be  with  you  ? 
—  I  have  arrived  at  last,  my  sweetheart,  in  very  good  health, 
and  am  now  in  the  house  of  an  American  officer.  By  the 
greatest  good  fortune  in  the  world,  a  French  vessel  is  just 
ready  to  sail.     Think  how  happy  I  am  ! 

Here  is  his  account  of  his  wound  at  the  battle 
of  Brandywine.  In  the  earUer  letters  he  had  ex- 
plained to  his  poor  little  wife  that  a  general  officer 
was  really  in  no  sort  of  danger.  He  had  now  to 
confess  that  in  his  very  first  battle  he  was  wounded. 
I  observe  that  he  wrote  to  her  immediately,  but 
they  would  not  let  him  write  a  long  letter.     "  I 


146  boys'  heroes. 

begin  by  telling  you  that  I  am  well,  because  I 
must  end  by  saying  to  you  that  we  had  a  good  bat- 
tle yesterday,  and  that  we  were  not  the  strong- 
est." Is  not  that  a  pretty  way  to  announce  a  de- 
feat } 

Our  Americans,  after  having  held  firmly  for  a  long  time, 
ended  by  being  routed.  When  I  was  trying  to  rally  them, 
the  English  gentlemen  gave  me,  gratis,  a  musket'shot  which 
has  wounded  my  leg  a  little  ;  but  this  is  nothing,  my  sweet- 
heart. The  ball  has  touched  neither  bone  nor  nerve,  and  I 
am  let  off  by  being  laid  on  my  back  for  some  time,  which 
makes  me  very  cross,  I  hope,  my  sweetheart,  that  you  will 
not  let  this  trouble  you,  for  it  is  really  a  reason  for  being  less 
troubled  since  it  will  keep  me  out  of  action  for  some  time, 
because  I  mean  to  take  very  good  care  of  myself.  Be  well 
assured  of  this  —  my  sweetheart. 

Afterwards,  he  says : 

Now  you  are  the  wife  of  an  American  general  officer,  so  I 
must  teach  you  your  lesson.  People  will  say  to  you,  "your 
friends  have  been  beaten  ;  "  you  will  reply,  "  that  is  true,  but 
between  two  armies,  equal  in  number,  in  an  open  country, 
old  soldiers  always  have  the  advantage  over  new ;  besides 
we  had  the  pleasure  of  killing  a  great  many  people,  many 
more  of  the  enemy  than  we  lost  ourselves."     After  this,  they 


GENERAL    LAFAYETTE.  147 

will  say,  "  that  is  very  fine,  but  Philadelphia  is  captured,  the 
capital  of  America  and  the  bulwark  of  liberty."  You  will 
reply,  "  you're  fools  !  Philadelphia  is  a  sad  place,  of  which  the 
harbor  had  been  closed  already,  and  which  the  session  of 
Congress  had  made  famous.  I  don't  know  why ;  that  is 
all  there  is  about  this  famous  town,  which,  in  parenthesis, 
we  will  take  back  sooner  or  later."  If  after  this  they  annoy 
you  with  questions,  you  will  send  them  marching  in  terms 
which  the  Viscount  de  Noailles  will  teach  you,  for  I  am  not 
going  to  take  my  time  in  teaching  you  politics. 

Now  is  not  that  a  pretty  letter  for  one  sweet- 
heart to  write  to  another  ?     He  was  twenty  years 
old  when   he   wrote    it.     He    recovered  from  his 
wound,  and  he   showed   once   and  again,  in  very 
active  campaigns,  that  he  was  a  man  of  real  mili- 
tary genius.     But  I  am  not  going  to  tell  you  the 
story  of  his  life,  even  briefly.     To  tell  the  truth,  my 
wish  has  been  to  interest  you  all  so  much  in  his 
own  way  of  telling  it,  that  all  of  you  who  are  sensi- 
ble and  bright  shall  go  to  the  Public  Library,  shall 
take  out  the   French  book,  and  try  how  well  you 
can  puzzle  out  the  French  in  which  his  letters  are 
written.     That  is  the  true  way  to  read  history  —  to 
read  it  in  the  original  authorities. 


148  boys'  heroes. 

Lafayette  flew  backward  and  forward  over  the 
ocean  whenever  he  could  best  help  America.  He 
was  in  the  thick  of  the  fight  at  Yorktown,  and  in 
that  brilliant  night  attack  on  the  two  redoubts 
which  decided  Cornwallis's  fate,  Lafayette  led  the 
American  column.  He  entered  his  redoubt  first, 
and  was  able  to  offer  assistance  to  the  French  col- 
umn which  had  assailed  the  others. 

In  the  French  Revolution  he  kept  a  level  head, 
to  borrow  a  convenient  expression  from  modern 
slang — an  expression  so  convenient  that  it  will 
perhaps  assert  for  itself  a  permanent  place  in  lan- 
guage. In  all  the  "  might-have-beens  "  with  which 
people  try  to  tell  how  the  French  Revolution  could 
have  done  its  work,  without  its  horrors,  they  have 
to  imagine  it  going  forward  on  the  lines  of  Lafay- 
ette's wishes.  He  was  at  times  the  most  popular 
of  Frenchmen  —  and  at  other  times  was  most  de- 
tested by  the  frantic  Revolutionists.  After  he  had 
done  his  best  for  France,  he  had  to  leave  France, 
and  the  Austrians  were  stupid  enough  to  imprison 
him  at  Olmutz.  Here  is  a  most  picturesque  bit  of 
history.     Napoleon    released    him.     But    he    and 


GENERAL    LAFAYETTE.  I49 


Napoleon  never  could  work  together.  When  Napo- 
leon fell  — and  when  the  Bourbons  fell  in  1830, 
Lafayette's  chances  to  serve  France  came  in  again 
—  and  he  used  them  like  a  man. 

But  the  government  of  the  Restoration,  the  gov- 
ernment to  which  we  owe  it  that  men  now  speak 
of  an  obstinate  fool  as  a  "  Bourbon,"  quarrelled 
with  him  — and  really,  though  not  in  form,  sent 
him  into  exile.  It  was  then,  in  1824  and  1825,  he 
came  to  America.  The  country  received  him  with 
an  enthusiasm  worthy  of  itself  and  of  France. 
The  country  did  not  know  before  how  enthusiastic 
it  could  be.  It  was  on  this  visit  that  he  laid  the 
corner-stone  of  the  monument. 

As  you  read  history  you  will  find  that  some  men 
laugh  at  Lafayette.  Carlyle,  quoting  Mirabeau, 
calls  him  "  Grandison  Cromwell  Lafayette,"  which 
means  that  he  was  a  revolutionist  who  made  bows, 
and  relied  on  etiquette.  But  if  you  will  read  care- 
fully you  will  come  out  assured  that  he  was  no  fool 
—  that  he  was,  as  I  have  said,  a  man  of  real  mili- 
tary genius  — and,  which  is  much  better,  you  will 
believe  him  an  upright  and  conscientious  man. 


XI. 


NAPOLEON    THE    FIRST. 


IT  was  with  some  hesitation  that  we  placed  Na- 
poleon Bonaparte,  the  first  emperor  of  that 
name,  on  our  list  of  heroes.  To  tell  the  truth,  I 
do  not  think  he  will  be  on  such  a  list  —  a  list  of 
boys'  heroes  —  in  the  year  1985.  Now  a  heio  who 
is  not  permanently  or  always  a  hero,  is  cnly  a  hero 
of  the  second  class. 

I  think  if  any  intelligent  person  had  made  a  list 
of  boys'  heroes  in  the  year  1760,  it  would  certainly 
have  included  Frederic  of  Prussia  —  if  the  list  had 
been  made  for  American  boys  or  English  boys. 
He  was  a  very  successful  soldier.  He  had  been  a 
very  successful  administrator.  He  had  made  a 
small  kingdom  into  a  very  powerful  one.  Any 
young  man  who  could,  sought  to  obtain  some  post 
in  his  army.     The  young  men,  of  whose  private 

150 


NAPOLEON    THE    FIRSTi  151 

lives  I  know  anything,  in  America  at  that  time, 
eagerly  studied  what  they  could  find  of  his  writing 
and  of  Frederic's  life. 

But  I  am  equally  certain  that  he  would  be  put 
on  no  list  of  boys'  heroes  now.  Mr.  Carlyle  has 
put  him  on  his  list  of  heroes  —  by  which  he  means 
persons  who  by  their  power  of  accomplishment, 
have  lifted  their  heads  above  the  current  of  their 
time.  But  Mr.  Carlyle  cannot  make  people  believe 
that  Frederic  has  a  place  in  the  lasting  regard  of 
men.  I  do  not  myself  think  that  Frederic  has  left 
anything  very  important  as  his  gift  to  the  world. 
It  has  been  said  that  his  best  gift  to  Germany  was 
the  introduction  of  the  potato  —  and  I  think  that 
would  have  come  in  without  him. 

Now  I  suppose  that  the  fame  of  Napoleon  the 
First  is  declining  with  every  year,  as  that  of  Frederic 
tJie  Great  has  declined.  Napoleon  was  a  very  skil- 
ful person  in  this  very  important  business  of  fight- 
ing. He  could  live  with  very  little  sleep.  He  had 
a  very  hard  heart.  He  cared  for  nobody  but  him- 
self. He  understood  the  business  of  war  wonder- 
fully well.     By  instinct,  almost,  he  brought  to  act 


152  ROYS     HEROES. 

on  one  point  the  largest  possible  number  of  men, 
and  almost  always  crushed  his  enemy  in  doing  so. 
When  a  nation  is  at  war  these  are  great  gifts. 
And,  by  such  means,  Napoleon  made  himself 
Emperor  of  France,  and  kept  himself  in  that  posi- 
tion for  eleven  years. 

But  these  are  not  gifts  which  through  all  ages 
command  the  regard  and  admiration  of  men. 
Other  men  appear  who  have  the  same  gifts.  The 
circumstances  go  by  which  made  those  gifts  of 
value.  Thus  it  would  be  very  hard  for  me  to  per- 
suade any  boy  or  girl  that  it  is  important  now  to 
any  one,  that  Napoleon  succeeded  in  the  battle  of 
Borodino  in  the  year  1812.  But,  in  the  battle  of 
Borodino  seventy  or  eighty  thousand  men  were 
killed  or  wounded  —  and  no  man  can  be  justified  in 
compelling  such  loss  of  life  but  by  some  great  exi- 
gency. If  the  objects  of  a  man's  life  are  transitory, 
and  the  methods  by  which  lie  gained  them  are 
transitory,  I  think  his  fame  will  not  be  eternal  or 
the  regard  which  men  have  for  him. 

In  truth  there  are  only  three  realities  in  life 
which  are  eternal.     They  are  Faith  and  Hope  and 


NAPOLEON    THK    FIRST.  T53 

Love.  Napoleon  had  neither  of  these.  For  I  do 
not  think  that  the  confidence  he  had  in  his  own 
star  is  fairly  to  be  called  Hope. 

Still  we  have  put  Napoleon  the  First,  though 
rather  doubtfully,  upon  our  list  of  "boys'  heroes," 
because  every  one  likes  to  read  about  him,  and,  in 
our  time,  ought  to  read  about  him.  In  other  times 
I  think  people  will  read  about  him  as  little  as  they 
now  read  about  Charles  the  Bold.  He  lived  in  a 
country  which  is  very  enthusiastic  about  military 
success.  He  created  a  school  of  admirers  who  re- 
garded military  success  as  the  greatest  success  of 
all.  And  a  library  of  the  Memoirs  of  Napoleon  — 
or  books  bearing  upon  his  history  —  is  one  of  the 
most  entertaining  collection  of  books  which  you 
can  find.  There  are  such  libraries.  They  number 
many  thousands  of  volumes. 

Napoleon  Bonaparte  was  born  on  August  15, 
1769.  It  seems  to  me  a  little  curious  that  the 
celebration  of  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  his 
birth  was  not  more  distinguished  by  public  cel- 
ebration. It  has  been  observed  with  interest 
that  Arthur  Wellesley,    afterwards  Duke  of  Wei- 


154  P^OYS      HEROES. 

lington,  who  met  Napoleon  in  battle  at  Waterloo, 
was  born  in  the  same  year.  He  was  three  months 
and  fifteen  days  older  than  Napoleon. 

Napoleon,  in  early  life,  always  spelt  his  name 
Buonaparte  —  with  a  u  in  the  first  syllable.  He 
changed  the  spelling  to  Bonaparte  without  a  //,  all 
of  a  sudden.  It  is  said  that  up  to  a  certain  day  all 
the  autographs  have  the  letter  //,  that  on  that  day 
there  is  one  letter  with  it,  and  another  without 
it,  and  that  always  afterwards  he  wrote  it  with  o 
alone.  I  suppose  that  after  he  became  a  French 
ruler  he  did  not  care  to  use  spelling  which  is  dis- 
tinctly Italian.  He  was  born  in  Corsica,  which 
was  ceded  to  the  crown  of  France  in  June,  1768. 
He  was  therefore  born  a  subject  of  Louis  the  Six- 
teenth. Had  he  been  born  sixteen  months  before 
he  would  have  been  born  a  citizen  of  the  Republic 
of  Genoa,  which  held  Corsica  till  its  cession  to 
France. 

His  father  was  a  well-educated  man,  who  was  of 
the  patriot  party,  as  it  was  called,  of  Paoli,  a  person 
a  good  deal  heard  of  in  those  days.  It  was  after- 
wards Napoleon's  duty  when  he  was  only  a  captain 


NAPOLEON    THE    FIRST.  1 55 

of  artillery  to  serve  against  Paoli.  When  he  was 
a  little  boy,  only  ten  years  old,  he  was  sent  to  the 
military  school  at  Brienne,  and  here  he  remained 
what  was  called  a  "  king's  pensioner  "  until  he  was 
in  his  sixteenth  year.  Observe  that  when  he  was 
a  schoolboy  in  this  school  the  boys  heard  of  La- 
fayette's and  Rochambeau's  successes  with  French 
troops  in  America. 

Here  is  his  own  account  of  his  boyhood : 

In  my  infancy  I  was  extremely  headstrong ;  nothing  over- 
awed me,  nothing  disconcerted  me.  I  was  quarrelsome,  mis- 
chievous ;  I  was  afraid  of  nobody ;  I  beat  one,  I  scratched 
another  ;  I  made  myself  formidable  to  the  whole  family. 
My  brother  Joseph  was  the  one  with  whom  I  was  oftenest 
embroiled ;  he  was  beaten,  bitten,  abused ;  I  went  to  com- 
plain before  he  had  time  to  recover  from  his  confusion.  I 
had  need  to  be  on  the  alert ;  our  mother  would  have  re- 
pressed my  warlike  humor,  she  would  not  have  put  up  with 
my  caprices.  Her  tenderness  was  joined  with  severity ;  she 
punished,  rewarded,  all  alike ;  the  good,  the  bad,  nothing 
escaped  her.  My  father,  a  man  of  sense,  but  too  fond  of 
pleasure  to  pay  much  attention  to  our  infancy,  sometimes 
attempted  to  excuse  our  faults.  "  Let  them  alone,"  she  said ; 
"it  is  not  your  business.  It  is  I  who  must  look  after 
them." 


156  m)YS'    HEROES. 

Napoleon  also  tells  this  story  of  himself : 

I  recollect  a  mischance  which  befel  me  in  this  way,  and 
the  punishment  which  was  inflicted  on  me.  We  had  some 
fig-trees  in  a  vineyard ;  we  used  to  climb  them  ;  we  might 
meet  with  a  fall  and  accidents ;  she  forbade  us  to  go 
near  them  without  her  knowledge.  This  prohibition  gave 
me  a  good  deal  of  uneasiness  :  but  it  had  been  pronounced, 
and  I  attended  to  it.  One  day,  however,  when  I  was  idle, 
and  at  a  loss  for  something  to  do,  I  took  it  in  my  head  to 
long  for  some  of  these  figs.  They  were  ripe  ;  no  one  saw 
me,  or  could  know  anything  of  the  matter  :  I  made  my  escape, 
ran  to  the  tree,  and  gathered  the  whole.  My  appetite  being 
satisfied,  I  was  providing  for  the  future  by  filling  my  pockets, 
when  an  unlucky  vineyard-keeper  came  in  sight.  I  was  half- 
dead  with  fear,  and  remained  fixed  on  the  branch  of  the  tree, 
where  he  had  surprised  me.  He  wished  to  seize  and  conduct 
me  before  my  mother.  Despair  rendered  me  eloquent ;  I 
represented  my  distress,  undertook  to  keep  away  from  the 
f-gs  in  future,  was  prodigal  of  assurances,  and  he  seemed 
satisfied.  I  congratulated  myself  on  having  come  off  so  well, 
and  fancied  that  the  adventure  would  not  transpire  ;  but 
the  traitor  told  all.  The  next  day  .Signora  Letitia  wanted 
me  to  go  and  gather  some  figs.  I  had  not  left  any,  there 
were  none  to  be  found :  the  keeper  came,  great  reproaches 
followed,  and  an  exposure;  the  culprit  had  to  expiate  his 
fault. 


NAPOLEON    THE    FIRST.  I57 

Here  is  his  account  of    liis  first  journey  from 
home  : 

I  still  remember  the  tears  she  shed  when  I  quitted  Corsica. 
That  is  now  forty  years  ago.     You  were  not  then  born  :  I 
was  young,  and  did  not  foresee  the  glory  that  awaited  me, 
still  less  that  we  should  find  ourselves  here  together  * ;  but 
destiny  is  unchangeable  :  one  must  obey  one's  star.     Mine 
was  to  run  through  the  extremes  of  life  ;  and  I  set  out  to 
fulfil  the  task  assigned  me.     My  father  repaired  to  Versailles, 
whither  he  had  been  deputed  by  the  Corsican  noblesse.     I 
accompanied   him;   we    passed  through  Tuscany  — I   saw 
Florence  and  the  Grand  Duke.     We  at  length  reached  Paris 
—  we  had  been  recommended  to  the  Queen.     My  father  was 
well  received,  feasted.     I  entered  the  school  at  Brienne  ;  I 
was  delighted.     My  head  began  to  ferment;    I  wanted  to 
learn,  to  know,  to  distinguish  myself  —  I  devoured  the  books 
that  came  in  my  way.     Presently  there  was  no  talk  in  the 
school  except  about  me.     I  was  admired  by  some,  envied  by 
others;    I  felt  conscious  of   my  strength   and   enjoyed  my 
superiority. 

It  was,  of  course,  very  curious  in  after  times, 
to  see  what  Napoleon's  teacher  thought  of  him. 
The  following  report  was  discovered,  and  made 
public  : 

*  At  St.  Helena. 


158  boys'  heroes. 

State  of  the  king's  scholars  eligible  from  their  age  to  enter 
into  the  service  or  to  pass  to  the  school  at  Paris  ;  to  wit  M. 
de  Buonaparte  (Napoleon),  born  the  15th  of  August,  1769, 
in  height  4  feet,  10  inches,  10  lines  (5  feet  6  1-2  inches  Eng- 
lish) has  finished  his  fourth  season  ;  of  a  good  constitution, 
health  excellent ;  character  mild,  honest,  and  grateful  ;  con- 
duct exemplary  ;  has  always  distinguished  himself  by  his 
application  to  the  mathematics;  understands  history  and 
geography  tolerably  well ;  is  indifferently  skilled  in  merely 
ornamental  studies,  or  in  Latin,  in  which  he  has  only  finished 
his  fourth  course  ;  would  make  an  excellent  sailor  ;  deserves 
to  be  passed  on  to  the  school  at  Paris. 

His  old  master  Leguille,  professor  of  history  at 
Paris,  boasted,  that  in  a  list  of  the  different  schol- 
ars, he  had  predicted  his  pupil's  subsequent  career. 
In  fact,  to  the  name  of  Buonaparte  the  following 
note  is  added  :  "  A  Corsican  by  birth  and  charac- 
ter—  he  will  do  something  great,  if  circumstances 
favor  him."  Monge  was  his  instructor  in  geome- 
try, who  also  entertained  a  high  opinion  of  him. 

M.  Bauer,  his  German  master,  was  the  only  one 
who  saw  nothing  in  him,  and  was  surprised  at 
being  told  he  was  undergoing  his  examination  for 
the  artillery. 


NAPOLEON    THE    FIRST. 


159 


Napoleon  received  his  first  commission  in  the 
French  army  when  he  was  only  sixteen  years  old. 
He  was  then  appointed  a  second  lieutenant  of  artil- 
lery. Observe  that  Lafayette  was  commissioned  at 
the  same  age.  Napoleon,  you  see,  served  under  the 
Monarchy  —  when  Louis  the  Sixteenth  was  still 
one  of  the  most  popular  of  kings.  Not  long  after 
he  was  commissioned,  he  competed  for  a  prize 
offered  by  the  Academy  of  Lyons,  and  he  won  it. 
The  subject  was  one  prepared  by  the  Abbe  Ray- 
nal:  "What  are  the  principles  and  institutions,  by 
application  of  which  mankind  can  be  raised  to  the 
highest  pitch  of  happiness."  Few  men  have  had 
such  a  chance  to  try  experiments  in  that  direction 
as  he  had  in  his  after-life. 

The  conflict  between  the  King  and  the  People  was 
steadily  approaching.  It  is  said  that  he  said,  in 
the  discussions  among  the  officers  of  his  regiment, 
"  Were  1  a  general  officer  I  would  have  held  by 
the  king :  being  a  subaltern  I  join  the  Patriots." 
All  such  stories,  however,  are  to  be  cautiously  re- 
ceived. It  is  certain  that  he  did  take  the  Patriot 
side.     In  1792,  when  he  was  twenty-three,  he  be- 


v/ 


i6o  boys'  heroes. 

came  a  captain ;  it  was  in  the  next  year  that  he 
served  in  Corsica.  The  French  were  not  success- 
ful there,  the  army  was  withdrawn,  and  his  mother, 
his  brother  and  sisters  crossed  to  Marseilles.  It  is 
said  that  they  were  quite  poor  until  Napoleon  was 
far  enough  advanced  in  his  career  to  relieve  iheni. 

In  the  south  of  France,  there  had  been  more 
than  one  district  where  the  people,  or  their  local 
leaders,  had  not  supported  with  enthusiasm  the 
violent  proceedings  of  the  Revolutionary  Conven- 
tion, and  had  looked  with  particular  horror  on  the 
imprisonment  of  the  king.  The  seaport  of  Toulon, 
which  was  a  Royal  arsenal,  had  declared  for  the 
King  and  the  Constitution  of  1789,  and  had  asked 
the  assistance  of  the  English  and  Spanish  Squad- 
rons which  were  cruising  on  the  coast.  This  assist- 
ance was  given  ;  and  a  garrison  made  up  of  Eng- 
lishmen, Spaniards,  Neapolitans  and  Sardinians 
was  thrown  hastily  into  the  city,  which  thus  became 
—  though  a  French  city  —  a  hostile  town  in  France. 
The  Convention  had  to  besiege  it  and  to  take 
it. 

The  Convention,  at  the  outset,  managed  its  mil- 


NAPOLEON    THE    FIRST.  16 1 

itary  affairs  very  badly,  having  the  wretched  custom 
of  sending  what  was  called  a  Committee  of  Public 
Safety  to  watch  and  overawe  the  General.  Lord 
Mulgrave,  an  Englishman,  held  command  of  the 
motley  garrison  within.  Things  dragged  along, 
with  little  success  for  the  French  for  some  time, 
when  Napoleon  Buonaparte,  who  was  then  only  a 
lieutenant-colonel  of  artillery,  was  appointed  com- 
mander of  the  artillery  in  the  siege.  So  soon  as 
he  arrived,  he  found  that  things  were  wretchedly 
mismanaged.  More  than  once  he  had  to  differ 
from  the  civilians  who  were  sent  down  to  watch 
him  and  the  siege.  In  a  sally  which  the  English 
made  against  a  French  outwork,  Napoleon  received 
a  bayonet  wound ;  and  O'Hara,  the  English  com- 
mander, was  wounded  and  taken  prisoner.  This  is 
the  same  O'Hara  who  gave  up  his  sword  to  Wash- 
ington at  Yorktown,  when  Lord  Cornwallis  was  too 
ill  *'  in  his  tent "  to  make  this  sign  of  surrender. 
Immediately  after  this  success,  Napoleon  opened 
a  heavy  fire  on  a  post  which  the  English  called 
Fort  Mulgrave  and  the  French  Little  Gibraltar. 
He  weakened  it  so  that  a  French  column  was  able 


1 62  boys'  heroes.' 

lo  lake  it  by  storm.  After  this  severe  loss  the 
allied  troops  withdrew. 

The  notes  which  the  committees  of  Paris  found 
in  the  office  of  the  artillery  department,  respecting 
Napoleon,  first  called  their  attention  to  his  conduct 
at  the  siege  of  Toulon.  They  saw  that,  in  spite  of 
his  youth  and  the  inferiority  of  his  rank,  as  soon  as 
he  appeared  there,  he  was  master.  This  was  the 
natural  effect  of  the  ascendency  of  knowledge,  ac- 
tivity, and  energy,  over  ignorance  and  confusion. 
He  was,  in  fact,  the  conqueror  of  Toulon,  and  yet 
he  is  scarcely  named  in  the  official  dispatches. 

Still,  after  such  success,  it  was  a  year  or  two  be- 
fore his  military  genius  had  any  fair  chance  given 
to  it.  It  was  not  till  the  famous  day  which  Carlyle 
calls  the  day  of  the  "  Whiff  of  Grape  Shot,"  that 
he  established  himself  as  one  of  the  great  Leaders 
of  the  French  people.  On  that  day,  October  4, 
1795,  he  was  but  twenty-six  years  old.  From  that 
time  for  twenty  years  he  was  the  most  important 
man  who  was  in  any  way  connected  with  France 
or  her  government. 

I  have  only  tried  to  give  a  sketch  of  his  life 


NAPOLEON    THE    FIRST.  163 

while  he  was  a  young  man.  You  will  all  see  that  in 
those  days  he  showed  most  of  the  characteristics 
which  gave  him  distinction  afterwards.  I  think  he 
also  showed  the  limitations,  which  make  it  certain 
that  he  can  never  be  counted  among  the  number 
who  are  acknowledged  to  be  the  first  of  men. 


XII. 


RALPH   ALLESTREE. 


WHEN,  in  the  beginning  of  this  series,  I 
and  a  loyal  body  of  friends  selected  the 
group  of  heroes  whose  history  the  reader  has  fol- 
lowed, it  was  agreed  by  those  high  contracting 
parties  that  the  twelfth  hero  should  be  invented 
by  me. 

This  new  hero  is  to  combine  all  the  excellencies 
of  the  other  twelve  and  none  of  their  vices.  He  is 
to  be  as  gentlemanly  as  Arthur,  and  Richard,  and 
Bayard,  and  Robinson,  and  Lafayette.  He  is  to 
be  as  tender  but  not  as  unfortunate  as  Hector. 
He  is  to  be  as  brave  as  Horatius  and  Alexander, 
and  as  successful  as  Napoleon  and  Hannibal  were 
in  their  early  days. 

Beside   this  his  life  shall  have  good  separate 

anecdotes  like  Old  Put's.     I  wish  I  could  add  that, 

164 


RALPH    ALLESTREE.  1 65 

like  Old  Put,  he  was  to  have  a  good  biographer. 

It  has  also  been  agreed  that  he  is  to  be  a  hero 
of  our  time,  so  that  any  boy  who  reads,  may  go  and 
do  likewise. 

He  is  not  to  be  brought  up  in  riches,  far  less  in 
abject  poverty ;  he  is  to  be  an  American,  and  to 
have  his  early  education  in  that  middle  state  of  life 
to  which  Robinson  Crusoe  was  born,  and  which 
Agur  prayed  for.  Like  most  young  Americans  he 
is  to  "  paddle  his  own  canoe  "  from  early  years. 

As  for  name  —  we  doubted  a  good  deal,  seeing 
we  are  making  him  up  entirely.  For  if  we  give 
him  a  name  of  the  people,  there  will  be  twenty 
John  Fishers,  or  George  Bacons,  or  William  Fos- 
ters who  will  read  this  very  biography,  and  will 
think  the  story  is  written  about  them.  Why,  there 
are  three  E.  E.  Hales  now  on  the  catalogue  of 
Harvard  College,  a  fourth  keeps  a  shop  for  dogs  in 
Fulton  street,  and  a  fifth  runs  an  express  wagon  in 
New  Hampshire.  Suppose  we  took  that  name  for 
the  Hero's  name,  they  might  all  think  the  parable 
was  written  of  them.  Still  it  is  very  hard  to  write 
long  of  a  man  who  has  no  name.     I  know  people 


1 66  boys'  heroes. 

who  begin  a  story  by  saying,  "  I  have  a  friend,  who 
made  us  a  visit,  and  went  to  see  a  friend,  who  lives 
in  Friend  street.  My  friend's  friend  said  to  my 
friend  that  a  friend  of  hers  called  on  a  friend  "  — 
and  so  on  and  so  on.  But  this  always  confuses 
me,  for  I  am  slow  of  understanding.  In  sympathy 
with  readers  who  resemble  me,  it  has  been  deter- 
mined that  our  Hero  shall  have  a  Name. 

Our  proposal  was  to  select  twenty-four  unusual 
surnames  from  the  Directory,  and  as  many  christian 
names  from  the  list  at  the  end  of  the  dictionary, 
and  to  draw  the  two  names  by  lot  from  these. 
Proceeding  on  this  line,  with  some  forcing,  we  came 
upon  "  Rufus  Mulhall,"  for  our  Hero.  But  every 
one  disliked  this.  He  was  then  altered  to  Ralph 
Mulhall.  Then  it  proved  that  Mulhall  was  not  an 
old  New  England  name,  and  that  seemed  desirable. 
So  we  changed  him  to  Ralph  Allestree,  having 
found  Allestree  in  Lechford. 

Ralph  Allestree  was  seventeen  years  old  when 
the  war  of  the  rebellion  broke  out.  They  rejected 
him  because  he  was  too  young,  when  the  volunteers 
appeared  in  Boston  for  the  First  Massachusetts 


RALPH    ALLESTREE,  167 

Regiment.  Ralph's  next  best  chance  was  to  go  on 
a  farm  in  Vermont  where  his  uncle  lived  and  raised 
horses.  It  was  here  that  he  learned  everything 
about  a  horse  which  is  worth  knowing,  and  became 
literally,  as  much  of  a  ''''chevalier^''  as  Bayard.  But  it 
was  not  till  he  was  nineteen  that  he  could  jDersuade 
any  surgeon  to  pass  him.  Then  he  succeeded  in 
exactly  what  he  wanted.  He  was  sworn  in  as  a 
private  in  the  Fourth  Massachusetts  Cavalry,  and 
from  the  beginning  had  the  pleasure  of  serving 
under  that  White  Knight  of  modern  chivalry, 
Francis  Washburn  of  High  Bridge. 

This  is  the  story  of  High  Bridge.  When  Lee 
was  in  full  retreat  in  Virginia,  hoping,  if  possible, 
to  join  Johnston  in  North  Carolina,  Ord  was  lead- 
ing the  pursuit  of  Grant's  army,  and  in  those  criti- 
cal hours  made  one  of  the  great  marches  of  modem 
history.  At  last  he  had  to  stop.  But  before  day- 
light on  April  6,  1865,  he  sent  forward  from  Berks- 
ville  two  small  regiments  of  infantry  and  his  own 
headquarters  escort  of  cavalry,  under  Colonel  Wash- 
burn's command,  to  burn  High  Bridge.  He  after- 
wards sent  Theodore  Read,  his  chief-of-staif,  to 


1 68  boys'  heroes. 

command  the  little  party.  They  were  all  within 
two  miles  of  the  river  when  General  Lee's  cavalry, 
in  advance  of  his  whole  army,  overtook  them. 

Read  drew  up  his  eighty  horse  and  five  hundred  infantry, 
rode  along  the  front  of  his  ranks,  inspired  the  men  with  his 
own  valor,  and  began  the  battle  with  an  army  in  his  front. 
Charge  after  charge  was  made  by  the  chivalrous  Washburn, 
and  at  last  not  an  officer  of  that  cavalry  party  was  left  un- 
wounded  to  lead  the  men ;  and  not  until  then  did  they  sur- 
render. But  the  stubborn  fight  in  his  front  led  Lee  to  believe 
that  a  heavy  force  had  struck  the  head  of  his  column.  He 
ordered  a  halt  —  and  this  whole  portion  of  his  army  began 
entrenching ;  so  that  the  rear-guard  and  wagon  train  were 
delayed  in  their  march,  and  this  gave  time  for  Sheridan  to 
come  up  with  the  flying  column  on  the  Deatonsville  road.* 

You  see  that  that  half-day  in  which  those  fine 
fellows  checked  an  army  was  the  end  of  the  war. 
Read  and  Washburn,  and  Washburn's  officers  did 
not  die  in  vain.  Lee's  retreat  was  checked  long 
enough,  and  on  the  next  day  the  notes  passed 
between  Grant  and  Lee  which  resulted  in  the  great 
surrender, 

*  From  "  Badeau's  Life  of  Grant." 


RALPH    ALLESTREE.  1 69 

The  three  hundred  men  who  died  at  Thermopylae 
scarcely  stopped  Xerxes'  army  for  a  day. 

The  men  who  fought  at  High  Bridge  gave  peace 
to  the  country  after  four  years  of  war.  They  were 
prisoners  for  less  than  forty-eight  hours.  They 
were  never  exchanged  —  for  when  those  forty-eight 
hours  were  over  the  war  was  done. 

Yes,  it  was  hard  enough  for  these  fine  fellows  to 
join  in  the  triumphs  of  victory.  They  were  in  the 
great  "  March  Past,"  when  for  a  day  the  united 
armies  of  Sherman  and  of  Grant  poured  by  the 
White  House  and  saluted  Abraham  Lincoln  —  in 
token  that  War  was  over.  But  not  a  man  of  them 
could  forget,  all  through  the  honors  of  that  day, 
those  brave  friends  whose  death  had  bought  that 
rejoicing.  But,  after  this  great  day  of  jubilee,  regi- 
ment after  regiment  was  discharged  and  they  could 
all  hurry  home. 

Home!  It  was  Ralph's  first  day  at  home  for 
two  years.  And  it  would  not  be  quite  home,  until 
his  father  came  too.  But  they  now  counted  it  only 
in  weeks  till  the  Alert  should  arrive  —  the  little 
cruiser  which  he  commanded. 


170  BOYS     HEROES. 

And  the  Alert  never  came.  I  do  not  know,  and 
no  man  knows  in  what  sea  —  deep  down,  above  the 
bottom  and  below  the  surface  —  what  is  left  of  the 
Alert  is  tossing.  And  I  do  not  know,  and  no  man 
knows,  where  are  the  bodies  of  Ralph's  father,  and 
of  the  brave  men  whom  he  commanded.  From 
that  day  to  this  day  Ralph  has  done  to  his  mother 
and  his  brothers  and  his  sisters  what  his  father 
would  have  done  if  —  if  the  Alert  had  come  home. 

It  was  eight  months  before  the  Navy  people 
gave  her  up.  Then  they  sent  a  great  letter  to  Mrs. 
Allestree  and  said  they  had  given  up  th«  Alert ^  and 
another  great  letter  came  with  an  order  for  the 
administrator  of  Captain  Allestree's  estate  to  sign 
—  on  presentation  of  which  his  back  pay  and  his 
prize  money  would  be  paid,  and  his  account  would 
be  closed. 

"  I  shall  leave  it  to  you,  Ralph,"  said  his  mother. 
"  You  have  never  decided  wrong." 

"  I  knew  you  would  say  so,  mother.  You  said 
so  when  I  joined  the  Fourth.  And  surely  all  came 
out  well  then.  I  will  tell  you  what  I  will  do.  1 
will  be  a  mining  engineer.     There  is  this  twelve 


RALPH   ALLESTREE.  171 

hundred  dollars  in  the  will,  left  for  my  education. 
Mr.  Fletcher  says  it  must  go  for  that,  anyway.  I 
will  go  to  Paris  first,  to  the  School  of  Mines.  I  will 
go  to  Freyburg  next,  if  that  is  the  right  thing  to 
do.  I  will  make  the  money  last  three  years.  And 
when  I  come  home,  I  will  know  enough  "  — 

"  To  confound  and  confuse  your  poor  old 
mother.'* 

"  To  make  my  pretty  little  mother  as  proud  as  a 
peacock  of  her  boy  —  and  better  than  that  "  — 

"  To  change  lead  into  gold,"  said  his  mother. 

"  No !  better  than  that.  I  will  do  what  any 
American  hero  should  do  —  I  will  be  leader  and 
guide  among  the  Founders  of  States." 

"  Dear  Ralph,"  said  his  mother,  as  she  kissed 
him,  "you  are  your  father  over  again.  But  he 
never  founded  so  much  as  a  bowling-alley.  Ralph, 
let  it  be  as  you  say." 

So  Ralph  went  to  Paris.  And  afterward  he  went 
to  Freyburg,  which  proved  to  be  the  best  thing. 
And  he  made  the  money  last  more  than  three  years. 
For  he  was  not  ashamed  of  his  clothes.  He  did  not 
need  to  smoke,  he  drank  water  and  milk  and  tec. 


tj2  boys'  heroes. 

and  coffee,  and  never  touched  liquor.  If  he  trav- 
elled, it  was  on  foot.  If  he  bought  books,  it  was 
in  the  People's  editions.  "  I  am  a  '  Child  of  the 
Public,'  "  Ralph  said  almost  fiercely,  for  though  he 
was  never  vain,  he  was  proud  as  Bayard.  He  was 
nearly  four  years  older,  when  he  came  home  in  the 
steerage.  He  bought  a  silk  dress  for  his  mother 
with  the  sixty  dollars  he  saved  by  buying  a  steerage 
passage. 

And  if  you  want  to  know  more  of  him,  you  must 
go  to  the  State  of  Franklin,  and  spend  three  months 
at  the  capital  when  the  legislature  is  in  session. 
I  forget  about  the  capital  of  Franklin,  but  I  believe 
its  name  is  to  be  changed  to  Washburn.  Anyway, 
if  you  will  go  to  the  Sierra  Hotel,  or  the  Hotel 
Sierra  there,  if  you  will  hire  a  room  for  three  months, 
and  sit  every  evening  among  the  loafers,  and  drum- 
mers, the  other  travellers,  the  legislators,  and  the 
miners  who  are  smoking  there,  you  may  hear  stories 
for  all  that  time  of  Ralph  Allestree,  or  the  "  Boss," 
as  they  will  call  him.  These  stories  will  show  that 
even  while  he  was  as  young  as  Lafayette  at  Brandy- 
wine,  or  Alexander  at  Issus,  he  was  as  chivalrous 


RALPH    ALLESTREE.  173 

as  Richard  and  as  brave  as  Horatius.  They  will 
show  that  he  is  as  kind  to  his  inferiors  as  Robinson 
Crusoe,  more  spotless  than  Bayard,  and  as  true  a 
gentleman  as  Hector.  He  has  been  as  much  loved 
by  his  companions  as  King  Arthur,  and  as  success- 
ful as  Hannibal  and  Napoleon.  And  if  I  only  had 
the  tact  of  Colonel  Humphreys  in  picking  out  anec- 
dotes, you  would  say  that  Ralph  Allestree  had  been 
as  fortunate  in  his  biography  as  Old  Put  was. 

If  you  ever  write  a  biography,  I  advise  you  to 
write  it  as  Plutarch  wrote  his.  Plutarch  was  a 
fool,  but  in  spite  of  this  —  nay,  I  have  sometimes 
thought  because  of  this  —  he  wrote  the  most  charm- 
ing biographies  which  were  ever  written. 

He  does  not  trouble  you  with  dates  or  precise 
versifications.  Thus,  he  does  not  tell  you  that 
Coriolanus  was  born  upon  the  third  Kalend  of  Jan- 
uary, but  that  somebody  else  thinks  it  was  on  the 
twelfth.  You  do  not  care  a  straw  —  no,  nor  the 
finest  filament  of  a  straw,  which  day  he  was  born. 
Nor  does  anybody  else  in  the  wide  world  or  the 
wider  heaven.  Instead  of  such  rigmarole  Plutarch 
tells  you  a  string  of  entertaining  stories.     Some  of 


174  BOYS     HEROES. 

them  when  he  wrote,  had  survived  the  wreck  of 
time  for  many  centuries.  And,  from  these  stories, 
you  know  a  great  deal  more  of  the  man  than  you 
would  know  by  any  certainty  that  he  was  born  at 
the  village  of  Veil  and  not  at  the  village  of  Peii,  or 
that  he  was  inoculated  by  Doctor  Fabius  and  not 
by  Doctor  Labius,  if  indeed  there  had  been  any 
doctors  or  any  inoculation  in  those  days.  I  have 
said  this  before,  but  I  say  it  again.  We  will  tell 
our  story  in  Plutarch's  way  —  for  it  is  undoubtedly 
the  best  way. 

One  day  Ralph  was  voyaging  on  Lake  Superior. 
They  were  out  of  sight  of  land,  for  there  was  the 
very  slightest  haze  on  the  horizon.  The  waves  of 
fresh  water  are  different  from  those  of  salt  water, 
but  this  day  there  was  nothing  which  you  would 
call  a  wave,  only  long  swells  which  furrowed  the 
lake.  These  were  the  leavings  of  a  long  northwest 
storm.  Ralph  was  talking  with  some  friends  on 
the  upper  deck  when  they  heard  an  agonized 
scream  from  a  woman  forward.  Some  instinct  told 
him  what  was  the  matter.  He  flung  into  the  lake 
the  stool  on  which  he  was  sitting,  ran  at  full  speed 
to  the  very  stern  of  the  boat  and  without  pausing 


RALPH   ALLESTREE.  175 

an  instant  sprang  head-foremost  into  the  white 
foaming  trail  of  the  vessel.  She  was  sailing  ten 
or  fifteen  miles  an  hour.  That  means,  say  twelve 
hundred  feet  in  a  minute,  and  that  means  twenty 
feet  in  a  second.  The  second  he  had  saved  by  his 
presence  of  mind,  saved  the  life  of  the  little  Ger- 
man boy  who  had  fallen  into  the  water.  F  /r  the 
boy  rose,  and  Ralph  rose  not  twenty  feet  from  each 
other,  and  Ralph  saw  him.  The  boy  went  down 
slowly,  but  Ralph  went  after  him  and  clutched  him. 
In  two  seconds  more  the  child  was  squalling  lus- 
tily, but  Ralph  was  working  steadily  towards  the 
floating  stool,  which  was  not  far  away.  In  less 
than  five  minutes  a  boat  from  the  steamer  was 
feeling  its  course  back  by  the  track  of  white  foam, 
and  at  the  end  of  five  minutes  Ralph  and  the  little 
German  and  the  stool  were  hauled  in.  Now  all 
this  would  have  been  madness  had  he  not  been 
sure  that  the  stool  would  float,  or  had  he  lost  one 
second  of  time.  But,  in  fact,  it  was  not  madness. 
It  was  prudence  and  heroism  together.  The  story 
of  that  promptness  went  with  Ralph  wherever  he 
went,  and  did  something  toward  forming  the  confi- 


176  boys'  heroes. 

dence  with  which  people  were  apt  to  look  at  him 
even  when  he  was  very  young. 

Another  of  his  swimming  feats  happened  at  the 
mines.  Some  "  tender  feet "  had  just  come  in  to 
the  settlement.  Ralph  met  the  father  of  the  fam- 
ily, welcomed  him  cordially,  and  asked  for  his 
children. 

"  I  told  them  they  might  go  and  bathe,"  said  the 
father.  "  They  need  it  enough  after  our  long 
journey." 

"  Bathe ! "  cried  Ralph,  starting  from  his  high 
desk,  and  rushing  for  a  lasso  which  hung  over  the 
door.  "  Have  they  gone  to  the  lake  ? "  And  when 
the  frightened  father  said  they  had,  Ralph  called 
both  his  clerks  and  old  Tristram  and  ran  at  five- 
forty  speed  over  the  half-mile  from  his  office  to  the 
lakeside. 

It  was  just  as  he  had  feared.  Into  the  marble 
of  the  shore  the  water  of  the  lake  had  cut  in  cu- 
rious white  clefts.  They  were  so  like  the  bath-tubs 
of  giants  that  people  called  them  "  the  Baths." 

The  three  children  had  been  tempted,  as  Ralph 
knew  they  would  be,  to  bathe  in  the  Baths.     They 


RALPH    ALLESTREE.  1 77 

could  all  swim  ;  they  had  taken  hold  of  hands  and 
then  leaped  in  together.  And  so,  when  Ralph 
arrived,  the  three  children  were  freezing  to  death 
in  this  cruel  water.  For  the  walls  of  the  cleft  were 
so  smooth  with  the  washing  of  ages  that  neither 
hands  nor  feet  could  get  a  hold.  The  water  was 
not  quite  as  cold  as  ice,  but  it  was  not  much 
warmer. 

The  children  were  swimming  still,  but  even  now 
Hagar  could  hardly  hold  up  little  Polly. 

"  Never  fear  !  never  fear  ! "  cried  Ralph,  "  it  is 
all  right.  Keep  her  up  just  half  a  minute  more." 
And  he  slipped  the  loop  of  the  lasso  round  his  own 
waist.  The  instant  old  Tristam  came  up,  he  took 
the  other  end  of  the  rope,  and  Ralph  went  into 
the  water.  He  could  hold  up  Polly  now,  and  in  a 
minute  more  all  three  of  the  children  were  passed 
out  and  up  to  the  men  lying  on  their  stomachs  and 
reaching  down  from  the  rock  above. 

They  fairly  ran  the  children  home.  They  poured 
brandy  into  the  inside  and  rubbed  them  with  horse- 
hair mittens  on  the  outside,  and  they  were  all  saved. 

"  I  have  known  that  place  to  be  the  most  dan- 


178  boys'  heroes. 

gerous  hole  in  America,  since  I  went  into  it  my- 
self," said  Ralph. 

One  awful  day  in  midwinter,  when  they  had 
fairly  given  up  the  office  because  it  was  so  cold, 
and  all  the  clerks  and  other  outdoor  people  had 
gathered,  with  kerosene  lamps,  in  a  sort  of  Jury 
work-room  they  had  made  in  an  old  shaft,  Tristam 
came  in,  wild  with  excitement,  with  a  letter.  It 
was  dirty  and  wet,  but  still  legible,  if,  by  good  luck, 
Tristam  could  have  read.  But,  by  ill  luck,  Tristam 
could  not  read.  He  had  found  the  letter  tied  with 
a  bit  of  old  crape  round  the  neck  of  a  dog  who  had 
scratched  and  howled  at  the  half-blocked  door  of 
Tristam's  shanty.  Tristam  had  been  nursing  a 
sprained  ankle  there. 

"  The  wettest,  dirtiest,  meanest  cub  you  ever  did 
see,"  said  Tristam  in  explanation.  "  But  she  had 
this  rag  round  her  neck  'n'  I  knew  that  meant  sun- 
thin'.  'N'  I  brought  it  down  right  away  for  some 
of  you  '  tender  feet '  to  read." 

For,  to  Tristam's  view,  all  men  and  women  who 
could  remember  any  point  east  of  Pike's  Peak  were 
"  tender  feet." 


RALPH   ALLESTREE.  1 79 

Ralph  tore  open  the  letter. 

Flynn's  house  is  burnt  and  Junio's  Junio  is  badly  burnt 
and  Flynn  is  ded  The  children  and  Junio  and  all  the  wim- 
men  is  in  my  shanty  The  snow  is  all  over  us  I  shall 
put  the  dog  through  the  roof  Sall  Watkins. 

Ralph  read  it  twice  to  the  group. 

"  Flynn  was  drunk,"  said  he,  "  and  so  was  Junio, 
and  so  was  Sail." 

Meanwhile,  he  kicked  off  his  slippers  which  he 
was  wearing  for  comfort,  and  pulled  on  his  boots. 
As  he  did  so,  he  said,  "  Who  will  go  with  me  ?  " 
without  looking  from  the  ground. 

"  In  course  I  will,"  said  old  Tristam. 

"  In  course  you  will  not,  with  that  foot  of  yours," 
replied  Ralph.  "  I  should  be  carrying  you  on  my 
back  before  we  had  gone  ten  rods." 

"  I'll  go,"  said  Nahum  Spalding,  who  was  putting 
on  his  fur  coat  already,  his  boots  were  on. 

Observe,  that  the  wind  was  blowing  smartly  from 
the  northwest,  that  the  thermometer  was  twenty- 
six  degrees  below  zero,  that  the  depth  of  the  snow 
varied  from  twenty  feet  in  the  drifts  to  nothing  on 
the    ridges,  and    that    Flynn's  was   eleven    miles 


i8o  boys'  heroes. 

away —  a  nest  of  wretched  drunkards,  as  worthless 
as  could  be  found  on  this  round  ball. 

Neither  of  the  other  men  said  a  word.  But,  as 
Ralph  was  fastening  his  snow  shoes,  a  Canadian 
whom  they  called  LeBosse,  said,  half  ashamed,  that 
he  did  go  once  on  a  tramp  to  help  a  fellow  Mason, 
and  that  when  he  arrived,  the  people  were  all 
blind  drunk  and  needed  no  help  at  all. 

"  Yer  would  go  ef  the  woman  v/uz  a  man  and 
could  make  the  sign  of  distress,"  said  Tristam,  in 
a  quiet  rage. 

And  at  this  taunt,  LeBosse  girded  on  his  snow 
shoes,  and  went  too. 

They  carried  on  the  sled  two  yards  of  canvas 
rolled  on  two  sticks,  with  which  to  make  shelter 
from  the  wind,  two  spades,  a  little  jug  of  whiskey, 
and  some  hard  bread. 

No !  There  is  not  room  enough  here  to  tell  of 
their  false  start,  of  their  going  up  the  creek  four 
miles,  and  having  to  come  down  because  there  was 
no  chance  to  cross  it,  till  they  were  within  a  mile 
of  their  starting  place,  to  tell  how  LeBosse  sulked 
and  turned  back ;  how  the  others  lost  their  way, 


RALPH    ALLESTREE.  l8l 

and  at  nightfall  had  not  found  Flynn's.  How  the 
wind  failed,  but  the  glass  went  down — or  would, 
had  there  been  any  ;  how,  at  sunrise  —  late  quarter 
to  eight  —  they  found  they  were  at  the  Devil's  Gap, 
how  Nahum  began  to  talk  wild  here  and  was  "  clean 
gone,"  how  Ralph  packed  him  away  —  knowing  he 
would  sleep  —  in  a  cleft  in  the  Devil's  Den,  and 
fastened  him  in  with  two  big  bowlders ;  how  then 
Ralph  went  on  alone,  and  at  three  in  the  afternoon 
—  twenty-nine  hours  after  he  started  —  hailed  the 
party  at  Flynn's. 

There  has  not  been  any  smoke.  He  was  afraid 
they  were  dead.  No  !  Junio  was  dying.  Sal  was 
asleep  in  a  drunken  sleep,  and  all  five  of  the  chil- 
dren, covered  up  by  one  bear  skin,  by  the  care  of 
Matildy,  the  biggest  of  them,  were  asleep  also. 
Sal  had  upset  the  jug  of  whiskey  which  contained 
every  particle  of  stimulant  in  the  house.  A  little 
water  leaked  in  from  the  roof.  There  was  not  a 
crumb  of  food. 

None  of  those  children  died,  and  Sal  Watkins 
never  touched  whiskey  again.  Three  years  after 
she  married  a  very  decent  man  named  Ogiltree, 


1 82  boys'  heroes. 

who  saw  her  at  Fitch.  She  told  him  her  whole 
story.  And  she  has  made  him  a  very  good  wife. 
Ralph  had  organzied  his  first  mine  on  the  Back 
to  Back  system.  This  means  that  the  capitalists, 
who  lived  in  Chicago  and  New  York,  had  one  third 
of  the  profit,  the  undertakers  had  one  third  —  they 
were  himself  and  a  smelter  named  Geniose,  and 

another  man  who  understood  the  market  named 
Gulliver,  and  the  workmen  had  one  third.  All 
wages  were,  by  agreement,  fixed  at  the  lowest  rates 
at  which  men  could  live,  and  everybody  looked  to 
the  profits  of  the  mine  for  his  real  compensation. 
The  thing  worked  so  well  at  the  Washburn,  that 
when  they  opened  the  Cinnabar  they  worked  on 
the  same  system,  and  they  did  the  same  at  the 
Jasper  afterwards.  Mining  is  like  everything  els' 
in  life.  It  is  the  first  step  which  costs.  They  had 
pulled  well  through  the  worst  first  steps  at  the 
Washburn  and  the  Cinnabar,  when  the  whole  com- 
munity at  the  Washburn  was  dismayed,  first  by 
the  suspicion  and  then  by  the  certainty  that  some 
very  grand  people  from  New  York  who  were  stay- 
ing at  the  Sierra  House,  and  were  spying  out  the 


RALPH    ALLESTREE.  183 

works  had  come  to  buy  the  Boss  off.  They  had 
offered  him,  it  was  said,  twenty  thousand  dollars 
a  year  and  a  share  in  their  mines  if  he  would  come 
and  take  the  charge  of  the  Aladdin  in  Montana. 
Then  one  of  them,  who  was  a  little  drunk,  had  let 
out  the  fact  that  because  twenty  thousand  dollars 
ivould  not  do,  thirty  thousand  dollars  should.  Every 
word  of  which,  so  far  as  it  said  that  such  offers  had 
been  made,  was  true.  And  the  offers  were  made 
by  substantial  people,  who  could  and  would  do  what 
they  promised. 

Now  this  did  not  mean  death  to  the  Washburn 
works  or  the  Cinnabar.  They  were,  in  both  cases, 
well  established.  The  hands  liked  the  bosses  and 
the  bosses  liked  the  hands.  The  capitalists  under- 
stood their  part  —  that  they  were  to  be  content 
with  their  dividends  and  were  not  to  interfere.  If 
Ralph  left,  still  the  mines  would  go  on. 

And  Ralph  was  not,  at  that  time,  earning  any- 
thing like  the  smallest  amount  named  in  this  mag- 
nificent offer  —  which  his  skill,  courage,  and  execu- 
tive ability  had  well  deserved.  He  was  not  earn- 
ing a  quarter  part  of  twenty  thousand  dollars. 


184  boys'  heroes. 

But  he  said  that  he  considered  himself  bound  to 
loyal  men  who  had  trusted  him  with  money,  and  to 
his  loyal  partners,  the  workmen,  who  had  come  in 
to  a  new  plan  proposed  by  him,  of  dividing  profits. 
Nothing  had  been  said  in  writing  which  should 
bind  him  to  stay  with  them.  But  he  believed  that 
he  understood  the  business  better  than  any  one 
else  did,  and  that  he  could  carry  it  on  better.  He 
certainly  should  be  disappointed,  and  should  think 
he  was  harshly  treated,  if  all  his  workmen  left  him 
together  and  went  off  to  the  Aladdin  or  to  Alaska. 
He  was  but  one  and  they  were  seven  hundred. 
But  as  things  were,  he  was,  perhaps,  as  necessary 
to  the  Washburn,  as  they  were. 

So  he  staid  at  the  Washburn  and  the  New  York 
gentlemen  looked  further  for  an  agent. 

But  that  sort  of  loyalty,  of  man  to  man,  helped 
the  Washburn  so  much  that  it  is  long  since  that 
the  Washburn  people  bought  out  the  Aladdin  and 
that  is  now  run  on  the  Back-to-Back  system. 

There  were  two  or  three  wretched  camps  of 
Indians  near  Washburn,  and  one  near  Cinnabar. 
What  the  poor  creatures  were  originally  I  do  not 


RALPH   ALLESTREE.  185 

know —  Snakes,  Crows,  Black-feet,  Diggers  or  what. 
They  were  in  a  fair  way  of  all  going  to  the  happy 
hunting-grounds  when  Ralph  appeared  on  the 
scene.  Old  Tristam  and  most  of  the  people  he 
had  to  do  with,  would  have  told  you  that  a  dead 
Indian  was  the  only  good  Indian  —  and,  so  far  as 
they  had  any  "  Lord,"  would  have  thanked  the 
Lord,  had  they  heard  that  there  was  small-pox  in 
either  of  the  camps. 

Ralph  never  smoked  a  pipe  of  peace  with  these 
wretches.  One  or  another  of  them  would  come 
into  the  town  to  sell  venison,  or  other  game,  and 
it  was  certain  that  they  got  no  bad  whiskey  there. 
Ralph  rode  out  one  day  to  see  them.  He  pro- 
duced some  salve  for  two  of  their  ponies  which 
had  some  disorder.  He  persuaded  two  of  the  boys 
to  take  a  letter  for  him  across  to  the  Yellowstone 
Reservation,  and  when  they  came  back  —  it  was 
only  three  or  four  hundred  miles  in  all  —  he  paid 
them  well.  Then  he  persuaded  them  and  another 
to  be  his  regular  scouts  and  hunters,  and  pleased 
their  fancy  by  a  little  bit  of  uniform  and  gold  lace. 
He  coaxed  Tubal,  one  of  his  blacksmiths,  to  show 


1 86  boys'  heroes. 

the  boys  how  to  handle  tools  ;  first  nothing  but  a 
tinker's  —  so  that  they  could  mend  a  tin  pail, 
but  in  the  end  they  could  make  a  tin  pail  or 
cut  an  old  one  to  pieces  and  make  it  into  mugs. 
The  Indian  girls  were  never  unwilling  to  earn 
finery  or  frocks,  by  doing  such  work  either  in  the 
garden  or  in  the  kitchen,  as  they  were  set  to.  The 
next  step  was  when  the  real  chief  of  the  gang  —  for 
it  was  not  a  tribe  —  were  recognized  as  official 
hunters,  and  had  their  strips  of  gold  lace,  and  a 
regular  science  of  ammunition.  Finally  there  was 
a  raising,  one  day,  of  a  frame  house,  and  a  state 
wedding,  when  the  chief  of  the  scouts  married  the 
prettiest  girl  in  the  clan.  Of  all  which,  the  secret 
was,  that  the  Red-skins  were  kept  from  whiskey, 
that  each  man  who  chose  had  land  of  his  own,  that 
they  were  kept  in  the  open  air,  that  no  one  learned 
anything  on  compulsion,  and  that  they  had  some 
one  a  little  in  advance  of  them  to  think  for  them 
till  they  could  think  for  themselves. 

You  may  read  the  written  and  printed  history  of 
the  Territory  of  Franklin  and  of  the  State  at 
Franklin  into  which  it  grew,  and  you  shall  not 


RALPH   ALLESTREE.  1 87 

once  find  the  name  of  Ralph  Allestree  in  any 
political  position.  But  if  you  will  go  to  the  town 
of  Washburn  in  the  State  of  Franklin,  you  will  find 
that  he  served  in  every  local  office  which  the 
records  of  that  township  name.  He  was  ready  to 
take  care  of  the  Pound,  he  was  ready  to  serve  as 
School  Committee-man,  he  was  a  Trial  Justice,  he 
was  a  Captain  of  the  light  infantry,  he  was  one  of 
the  trustees  of  the  church,  he  was  President  of  the 
Lyceum.  And  if  you  asked  any  one  to-day  who 
knows  that  region,  whether  Franklin  is  a  Republi- 
can State  or  a  Democratic  State,  he  would  say  that 
it  sends  Republican  Senators  and  Representatives 
to  Congress,  but  that,  as  for  its  government,  most 
people  would  be  very  apt  to  vote  as  Ralph  Alles- 
tree had  advised. 

For  it  is  very  certain  in  America  as  in  the  rest 
of  the  world  that 

THE  LEADERS  LEAD. 


